Defence ministry says locally developed technology tested in combat and shown to work against Russia’s deadly Shaheds. What we know on day 1,361
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Ukraine says it has started mass production of its new domestically developed interceptor drones to strengthen air defences. The first three manufacturers had begun production and 11 more were preparing to set up production lines, the defence ministry said on Friday. The drones would be based on a domestically developed technology called “Octopus” to intercept Shahed drones. It had been tested in combat and proved to be working “at night, under jamming and at low altitudes”, the ministry said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the goal is to manufacture up to 1,000 of the interceptors a day. Russia has been steadily increasing the number of drones it uses in a single strike on Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described Russia’s latest attack against Ukraine as “deliberate, calculated and wicked” after six people were killed and dozens injured in a wave of night-time strikes across Kyiv, reports Luke Harding. Air raid sirens sounded in the capital shortly after midnight on Friday and Shahed drones could soon be heard in the sky, with heavy machine-gun fire from Ukrainian air defences. Zelenskyy said the country was hit by 430 drones and 18 missiles. The dead had been at home in a block of flats on Kyiv’s left bank when it was hit. Dozens of other buildings were damaged, including the Azerbaijani embassy.
