Ukraine War: What are Kamikaze drones deployed by the Russian military?

As Russia has unleashed a wave of Kamikaze drones on Ukraine for the second time, let's understand what is this weapon and how does it work

Ukraine's capital city Kyiv witnessed a wave of explosive-laden suicide drones, also known as 'Kamikaze drones', on Monday. The attack comes even as Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned of a nuclear attack. The capital's Shevchenko district was among the areas hit, with apartment blocks damaged and a non-residential building on fire, Kyiv city mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

It is the second time Russia has unleashed a wave of Kamikaze Drones on Ukraine within a week. Andrii Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office, also confirmed in a social media post that "Shahed drones" were among those used in the strike on Kyiv.

Explosions in Kyiv. The Ukrainian capital was attacked by kamikaze drones. The Russians think it will help them, but such actions are like agony.

We need more air defense systems ASAP. More weapons to defend the sky and destroy the enemy.#russiaisateroriststate pic.twitter.com/sg4QoEEZJH

— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) October 17, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week's strikes were in retaliation for bombing a bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula with the Russian mainland. Putin blames Ukraine for masterminding the blast, which suspended traffic over the bridge and curtailed Moscow's ability to use the bridge to supply Russian troops in the occupied regions of southern Ukraine.

The strike on Kyiv comes as fighting has intensified in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in recent days, as well as the continued Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south near Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

What are Kamikaze drones?

A Kamikaze drone is an aerial weapon system in which the munition waits passively and attacks the target once located. These munitions enable faster reaction times against hidden targets that emerge for short periods and allow more selective targeting, as the attack can quickly be aborted.

The name comes from the World War 2 era's feared Japanese kamikaze pilots, who conducted suicide attacks by crashing their explosive-filled aircraft into enemy targets.

They differ from cruise missiles as they are designed to loiter for a relatively long time around the target area. 

Starting in the 2000s, loitering weapons have been developed for additional roles ranging from relatively long-range strikes and fire support down to tactical, very short-range battlefield systems that fit in a backpack.

Are Kamikaze drones and Shahed drones the same?

In September, Ukraine's military claimed that it encountered an Iranian-supplied suicide drone used by Russia on the battlefield, showing the deepening ties between Moscow and Tehran as the Islamic Republic's tattered nuclear deal with world powers hangs in the balance.

A Ukrainian military official and a pro-Ukrainian army website closely associated with the military published images of the drone's wreckage. It resembled a triangle or delta-shaped drone flown by Iran known as the Shahed, or Witness in Farsi.

US intelligence publicly warned back in July that Tehran planned to send hundreds of the bomb-carrying drones to Russia to aid its war on Ukraine.

While Iran initially denied it, the head of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has recently boasted about arming the world's top powers.

The military official and the website both said Ukrainian troops encountered the drone near Kupiansk amid Kyiv's offensive that has punched through Russian lines around Kharkiv on the eastern front.

Ukraine and Iran also have tense relations, stemming from Iran's Revolutionary Guard shooting down a Ukrainian passenger jet in 2020, killing all 176 people on board.