The New Jet-Powered Drones That Are Breeding Anxiety in Ukraine

The New Jet-Powered Drones That Are Breeding Anxiety in Ukraine - The New York Times

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Russia-Ukraine War

* War Escalation
* Underground Schools
* Russian Drone Strikes
* C.I.A. Chief’s Assessment
* Ukraine’s Drone Army
* Photos

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The New Jet-Powered Drones That Are Breeding Anxiety in Ukraine

These Russian drones are more destructive, faster and harder to shoot down than the propeller-driven models that Moscow has used throughout the war.

Listen · 6:25 min

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!Several uniformed police officers looking at a piece of debris on the ground. One is bending over to lift it and another is crouched beside it.

*Police officers inspecting parts of a Russian drone at the site of an apartment building damaged by a strike in Kyiv this week.

Credit...

Gleb Garanich/Reuters*

By

Cassandra Vinograd

Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

Sept. 3, 2026

Updated 6:44 a.m. ET

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The Russian strikes tormenting Ukraine’s capital in recent days have had an ominous new feature: jet-powered drones.

Significantly faster and harder to intercept than the propeller-driven drones that have stalked Ukraine’s skies for years, these munitions are stretching air defenses and stoking anxiety about what analysts and officials predict will be a dangerous new stage of the war.

Here’s what to know about the deadly weapons, which experts say blur the line between drones and cruise missiles, and upon which Russia is increasingly reliant.

Image

*A Russian-made Geran drone, recovered by the Ukrainian Armed Forces after failing to detonate, on display last month in Warsaw.

Credit...

Mateusz Kaczmarek/Reuters*

The Old…

Russia started launching Iranian-made, propeller-powered Shahed drones against Ukraine in the fall of 2022. Later, it began to mass produce its own versions, called Gerans.

The triangle-shaped drones have small piston engines that sputter like lawn mowers, and they carry explosive payloads that detonate when they crash into targets. They are relatively slow, noisy and fly at low altitude — characteristics that helped Ukraine find ways to shoot them down.

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