The Iranian-made Shahed drone that Russia is deploying to attack the citizens of kyiv

Russian drones have continued to rain down on Ukraine, devastating the country killing civilians and destroying buildings.

The Kremlin’s ‘kamikaze’ suicide drones, loaded with explosives, have become a terrifying feature of everyday life for Ukrainians.

Often small in size and cheap compared to other similar weapons, these drones have become an integral part of Russia’s warfare tactics, and one model in particular is wreaking havoc.

In a strike on Tuesday, Iranian-supplied Shahed-136 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were shot down from the sky over Kiev in successive waves of 31 strikes, Ukraine’s armed forces said. Although Ukraine’s air defenses said they were able to shoot down 29, Russia’s drones have not budged.

While Ukrainian forces have been using sophisticated drones, such as the US-made Predator, the Shahed-136 has proven a crude but effective weapon.

The Shaheds, which Russia has renamed the Geran-2, have a range of more than 600 miles and can “loitere” over potential targets for hours before crashing into enemy soldiers, vehicles or buildings and exploding on impact.

Iran previously denied providing Russia with weapons, before admitting late last year that it sent “a small number of drones months before the Ukraine war” to Moscow.

Drones have been used repeatedly by Russia during the conflict, targeting urban centers and power plants.

They are comparatively cheap, costing in the region of £16,000.

Their use in swarms presented a major challenge to Ukrainian air defenses early in the war.

And while Western nations have since bolstered Ukraine’s air defenses with anti-missile systems, the country is still in the grip of relentless attacks.

Ukrainians who have witnessed the drone strikes say they make a very distinctive noise, like “motorbikes” in the air, while some soldiers have taken to calling the drones “the flying lawn mower.”

The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces released a video in October last year showing smoking wreckage, claiming it was one of the drones. The post said that he had been shot down by a machine gun.

“This is a primitive craft product,” Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, told Radio Free Europe after last year’s attack.

‘It’s not a high-tech conveyor belt production like the [Turkish-made] Bayraktar or American and Israeli [unmanned aerial vehicles]’, he added.

Ukrainian residents described the drone strikes to RFE. You can hear the roar. First, I just heard them, but then I saw one fly by and then explode,” said one man.

Another said: ‘There was a buzz that woke me up. I remember thinking, “What is that?” The sound was getting closer and then there was an explosion near the house.

The first recorded use of the drones was reportedly in Yemen. Now, Iran is reported to have sold hundreds of drones to Russia.

Packed with explosives, Shahed UAVs can be pre-programmed with a target’s GPS coordinates. They are known as suicide drones because they plummet and explode on impact like a missile, destroying themselves in the process.

Shahed 136 is nearly 12 feet long with a 4 foot wingspan in a delta or triangular shape. The explosives are contained in the nose of the drone, as well as the technology that guides it to its targets for a precision strike.

The engine is located at the rear and drives two bladed propellers. It has been compared to an engine you would find in a lawnmower or moped.

According to Iranian data, the range of the UAV is about 1,000 km (621 miles), but drone expert Samuel Bendett of the CNA think tank told MailOnline that the Shahed is being used in Ukraine at much shorter ranges. . That’s because its GPS guidance system, which is vulnerable to interference, isn’t very robust.

To overwhelm air defenses, several of the drones, usually batches of five or more, are launched at once from the same rack. They can be fired in rapid succession from a truck-mounted rocket launcher.

The rocket jettisons on liftoff and the engine takes over once it’s airborne. A near horizontal launch allows drones to fly low and slow, thus avoiding radar detection more effectively.

The Iranians are known to have controlled Shaheds via radio. It is not clear if Russia is capable of doing the same in Ukraine, although the Ukrainians have reported seeing the drones change direction, suggesting at least some remote control.

Using Shaheds allows Russia to avoid putting sophisticated aircraft and pilots at risk and save its limited stock of expensive long-range precision missiles.

Russia has managed to use the Shahed drones to saturate targets effectively, be it a fuel depot or infrastructure and utilities like power or water stations. They have done this by using them in conjunction with intelligence drones.

But Ukraine has said it managed to shoot down the vast majority of the drones, more than 80 percent, using machine guns and man-portable anti-aircraft missiles.

As the conflict essentially becomes one of attrition, Russia’s success in finding cheaper but more powerful weapons will continue to be to its great advantage.