Ukraine to begin mass use of drone interceptors within months, says Budanov
Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Budanov said Ukraine will begin mass use of interceptor drones against Russian jet-powered Shahed-type UAVs within several months, with prototypes already being tested in real combat conditions. He made the comments to Novyny.LIVE on 27 September. The statement follows a 3 September Staff meeting at which President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered accelerated production of high-speed interceptors, and a 23 September report that the military had successfully tested four new interceptors.
Key points
- Budanov: Ukraine will begin mass use of interceptor drones within several months.
- Prototypes are being tested in real combat conditions, not only in laboratories.
- Statement was made in a comment to Novyny.LIVE published Sunday, 27 September.
- On 3 September, Zelensky held a Staff meeting on accelerating production of high-speed interceptors against jet-powered Shaheds.
- On 23 September, Zelensky reported the military had successfully tested four new interceptors.
- Russia's mass use of jet-powered Shaheds has lengthened air-raid alerts in Kyiv, Odesa and other rear cities and broadened the target set to warehouses, gas stations and data centers.
Why it matters
The statement sets a concrete near-term timeline for a new class of Ukrainian air-defense capability aimed specifically at fast jet-powered attack drones. It signals a shift from laboratory testing to battlefield prototyping and toward scaled production, which could change how Ukraine defends rear cities against the long, multi-hour Shahed barrages that have become a regular feature of the air war.
What happened
In a comment to Novyny.LIVE published on Sunday, 27 September, Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Budanov said Ukraine will begin mass use of interceptor drones against Russian jet-powered Shahed-type UAVs within several months. He said prototypes of the drones are already being tested in real combat conditions, not only in laboratories. The comments follow a 3 September Staff meeting at which President Volodymyr Zelensky tasked officials with accelerating and scaling up production of high-speed interceptors to counter jet-powered Shaheds, and Zelensky's 23 September report that the Ukrainian military had successfully tested four new interceptors.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Both Ukrainian-language outlets that supplied the story treat it primarily as a forward-looking capability announcement. Coverage centers Budanov and Zelensky as the named sources, emphasizes the "several months" timeline for mass use, and pairs the capability claim with the operational problem of prolonged air-raid alerts in Kyiv, Odesa and other rear cities caused by mass Russian use of jet-powered Shaheds.
Background
At a 3 September Staff meeting whose main topic was accelerating production of high-speed interceptors against jet-powered Shaheds, Zelensky said manufacturers with the capability to deliver prototypes and scale up output exist, and that work continues on bringing the new weapon to the required level of effectiveness. On 23 September, he reported that the Ukrainian military had successfully tested four new interceptors. Mass Russian use of jet-powered Shaheds has lengthened air-raid alerts in Ukrainian rear cities such as Kyiv and Odesa and broadened the Russian target set to include warehouses, gas stations, data centers and other civilian-adjacent sites.