All about the Iranian Kamikaze drone 'Shahed-136' Kyiv accuses Russia of using | EXPLAINED

Russian Ministry of Defense on Sunday released footage depicting strikes on the Nikolayev-Krivoy-Rog axis with the Kamikaze or ‘suicide’ drones, accusing Ukrainian forces of intensifying the counteroffensive in the region of Kherson. The kamikaze drones and surveillance UAVs have struck the Ukrainian military positions, tanks, self-propelled artillery, and US-manufactured HMMWV armoured vehicles. 

US intelligence had publicly warned just a month into the conflict that Tehran plans to send hundreds of bomb-carrying drones to Russia, while the latter denied it. Ukraine's military then encountered an Iranian-supplied suicide drone used by Russia on the battlefield. Ukrainian military’s Strategic Communications Directorate published images of the wreckage of the drone on its official social media channels known as the Shahed-136, or “Witness” in Farsi, Kamikze implies that they are, apparently, disposable. These drones were widely used near Kupiansk as Kyiv intensified the counteroffensive that pushed Russian troops behind the battle lines around Kharkiv on the eastern front. 

“As a result of the use of the UAVs, several tanks, self-propelled artillery pieces and wheeled vehicles, including those supplied by NATO countries, were destroyed,” Russia's ministry of defense claimed in a statement published alongside the visuals.

Ukraine claims that the loitering Kamikaze drones capable of carrying the warheads were being rampantly supplied by Iran to Moscow's forces. Kyiv's regime accused Russia of resorting to acts of desperation as it demanded more air defence systems and ammunition from the West. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on social media that the capital Kyiv was bombarded with Iranian kamikaze drones as the air raid sirens resonated in Kyiv shortly before the first explosion at around 6:35 am or 9:05 am Monday, Indian Standard Time (IST).

Kamikaze drones struck Ukraine's Vinnytsia, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and other cities in recent weeks and have played a crucial role during Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that it launched in late February. 

What are Iranian Kamikaze drones Ukraine accuses Russians of firing? 

Officially designated as 'Geranium 2' in Russian military service, the Iranian Kamikaze drones with estimated 2.5 kg weight use real-time GPS coordinates for precise and accurate targeting and is launched from a variety of air, sea, and ground platform. A Kamikaze drone known as the next-generation loitering missile is relatively smaller in size and comes with a payload, launcher, and transport bag. It is launched from a tube and can be disengaged or aborted depending on the operator's commands during the mission, including at the last minute. 

When equipped with a missile, it can weigh around 55 kg, have a range of around 40 km and endurance of 40 minutes to destroy armoured targets including armoured tanks.

“Today the Russian army used Iranian drones for its strikes. The world will know about every instance of collaboration with evil, and it will have corresponding consequences,” Zelenskyy said in a Facebook post. 

The Kamikaze drones used by Russia, the Shahed-136 delta-wing drones, can be operational in less than 10 minutes and were first seen deployed during the Russian-Ukrainian War on September 13. According to geopolitical analysts, Iranian Shahed-136 delta-wing drones were widely used by the Russian military on targets in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, and were used to destroy the headquarters of a Ukrainian naval facility.

Iranian Shahed-136 delta-wing drones flaunt anti-radiation capabilities that can surpass the air defence systems and crush Ukraine’s older Soviet-built S-300 batteries in a show of Moscow's advanced firepower. A firepower analyst from Royal United Services Institute think tank warns that the kamikaze drones are very difficult to "consistently intercept" and while they might be slower than the cruise missiles, they will definitely cause large-scale military casualties. These drones, now widely used by Russians, are also cheaper than the cruise missiles and compensate for Moscow's lack of stealth aircraft such as Tu-22M bombers that have played a limited role during the conflict. Ukraine's Zelenskyy claims that Russia has bought up to 2,400 Shahed-136 amid its depleting arsenal.