With increasing drone strikes hitting regions across Russia — sparking fears the drones could pose a risk to passenger planes. These constants, ongoing aerial threats, were just cited as a potential danger by General Viktor Sobolev, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee, in a media interview recently. As Sobolev told Reuters, attacks in regions such as the Chechen Republic and Tatarstan could “jeopardize civilian airliners flying over those areas, where drones are currently operating.”
Earlier on December 26, Russian air defense forces intercepted five Ukrainian drones, shooting down three drones over the Volgograd region, one over the Voronezh region and one over the Belgorod region. Meanwhile, BBC News reported regional governors saying there were no casualty or damage to property. Nonetheless, these assaults sound the alarm about the developing regularity and intricacy of drone strikes inside Russia.
Since the 2022 special military operation in Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly faced incursions by drones on its territory. Kyiv has not taken responsibility outright, but even so, officials have suggested that they might have been in charge. According to Al Jazeera, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, openly remarked in August 2023 that “The number of drone strikes on Russia will multiply.”
A major worry, however, is the threat to civilian planes flying in the area. The lines between military and civilian areas are now often blurred and the air defense systems need better coordination with the authorities responsible for civil aviation. In order to safeguard the airspace, proper regulation of drone activity must consider every minor parameter at the moment of driving the drone, and conduct real-time monitoring, according to experts, per The Guardian.
Volgograd region, which is a historical and strategic region, was one of the attacked areas. Volgograd, once Stalingrad in World War II, continues to be an important transport and industrial centre. The Belgorod ans Voronezh regions have also great significance — both are located close to Ukraine and regularly experience border incidents, The Moscow Times reported.
For Ukraine, however, drone warfare has created a cheap way to conduct long-range strikes against Russia itself. The strategy is designed to disrupt logistics and inflict damage on the infrastructure key to the sustainment of a war effort against Russia. According to an analysis, the more frequent these attacks become, the greater the possibility for miscalculations that could lead to unintended casualties that would escalate tensions more in a region already so volatile.
There is a growing demand for the formulation of international regulations on drone warfare. With this new revelation that nano-drones can function as effective assassins, the new anti-drone technology shows that as with many arms races, the technology needed to respond will always outpace what the technology is used for in a combat context, and balancing personal security, military innovation and global humanitarian concerns will remain an ever-present tension as nations adapt to the new threats posed by drones. But members of NATO are unanimous that some of the air defense assets they need to each protect both the civilian airspaces and the military airspaces are going to have to be at least partly pooled, says The New York Times.
These drone attacks on December 26 were more easily countered then had been the case in the past, but they do highlight the challenges that this new form of warfare introduces. The authors consider that despite the situation unfolding between Russia and Ukraine, the implications for drone warfare are even greater and will certainly provoke the worry of military strategists and policymakers across the world, and however as Russia strengthens its air defences and Ukraine intensifies such tactics.
