“If he sees us, it’s over”, when Iranian drones sow terror in Kherson

Vladislav alias “Specialist“, his nom de guerre, watches the sky of Kherson, about fifteen kilometers fromRussian positions. Not a cloud on the horizon, perfect visibility and a new threat that has been hovering over his men for several weeks. “If a Shahed-136 spots us, we don’t have time to maneuver to escape“, confides the soldier. The Iranian suicide drone, used by the Russians, has become the new actor in the conflict in Ukraine, and slows down the counter-offensive towards the east.

The Shahed-136 drone is cheap and very complicated to detect. “He’s flying at 200 km/h and if he sees us, it’s the end of our weapons. On combat positions, if we don’t hear it, we don’t see it coming and we can lose 70% of the guys”, describes Vladislav, who makes the comparison with more conventional weapons. “With conventional artillery, a shell arrives and we have time to leave. With the Shahed, this is not possible, it is a very precise weapon. It is a great danger.”

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The “Specialist“leads a team of ten artillerymen. His equipment: a 152 mm cannon howitzer from the Soviet era, towed by a truck full of ammunition. An unwieldy and difficult to hide team, on a battlefield where it is very complicated to escape the eyes of the Shaheds, especially when there is very little vegetation.

“If there were more trees, it would be easier for us and for the infantry. We can’t hide. We have to stay there, under the roof of a gas station so as not to be landmarks.”

Vladislav, Ukrainian gunner

at franceinfo

“At the moment there are a lot of Shaheds and this is giving us serious problems. We must be more mobile to escape these new weapons otherwise we will have a lot of losses“, regrets the gunner. For a little less than a month, the Shaheds have destroyed several Ukrainian positions. After anti-tank missiles at the start of the war, then long-range artillery, the Ukrainians now need systems effective anti-aircraft defenses.