From Kyiv to the Donbas, Russia is trying to strangle Ukraine. The response and the new interceptors

Kyiv. Last Sunday, two days before the start of the new school year, the management of a secondary school in Kyiv sent a long email to parents, outlining three possible options for their children’s education from 1 September, depending on the security situation in the Ukrainian capital. The first scenario involves face-to-face lessons at the school’s premises; the second involves starting the school year online, with a return to school if the situation allows; the third involves blended learning. Pupils will study at school in a shelter for one week and remotely from home for the next. 

In the end, the school decided to try to organise the ‘First Bell’ ceremony for today, 1 September, at the sixth-form college’s premises. “In the event of an air raid, teachers and their classes will go to the shelter,” the school management reassured everyone. All this uncertainty has arisen due to the sudden deterioration of the situation in Kyiv over the last five days. Previously, the city, home to around 3.7 million people, was mainly subjected to night-time bombardments, but during the day it could enjoy a largely peaceful existence. Schools, nurseries, public transport, shops, cafés and restaurants were operating as normal. Now, however, air-raid sirens sound at all hours, with frequent explosions and air-raid sirens creating numerous daily problems for residents. For example, during an air-raid alert, the metro does not run across the bridge over the River Dnipro. This means that travel between the city’s right and left banks is severely restricted. Meanwhile, taxis have significantly increased their fares and buses cannot carry all passengers. Many shopping centres, shops and bank branches also close during air-raid alerts, and students are forced to take shelter. In total, between 27 and 31 August, Il Foglio counted fifty air raid alerts in Kyiv. Furthermore, during the day, Russia is launching not cheap ballistic missiles at the capital, but jet-powered drones flying at incredible speeds of up to 500 kilometres per hour. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has launched 1,500 drones of various types against Ukraine in four days, 800 of which were jet-powered. “The Russians’ current tactic is to wear the Ukrainians down,” he explained.

On 29 August, whilst out for a walk during the day in the popular Natalka Park in Kyiv, located in the Obolon district, a two-year-old girl was killed by debris from a crashed drone. This year, the Ukrainians have been using interceptor drones, which have successfully shot down Shahed drones, but jet-powered drones present a new challenge. According to Yevhen Khmara, the new Defence Minister, the search for a countermeasure against jet-powered drones is underway. At a meeting with journalists – which Il Foglio also attended – the minister explained that there are potentially four interceptors capable of shooting them down and that field tests have already been carried out. The next step is to scale up production to thousands of units. However, this will still take some time, and Russia will seek to exploit this opportunity. In the meantime, Kyiv is adapting to the new reality. Prime Minister Serhi Koretsky stated that the government is preparing changes to adapt the functioning of the state, the capital, the economy and critical infrastructure to Russia’s new attack tactics. “The enemy is seeking to paralyse economic activity in the capital and major cities, so our approaches and response strategies must change,” he said.

Whilst the ‘terror of drones’ against civilians continues, on the battlefield Russia is preparing for a decisive battle for the Donetsk region. According to Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of the Presidential Office responsible for military affairs, the Russian political leadership is imposing a specific deadline on its military commanders: to reach the administrative borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions by 31 December this year. Palisa states that, according to intelligence reports, the Russian military leadership – realising that it is impossible to meet this target – is requesting that the deadline be postponed until at least 31 March 2027. “In my view, even 31 March is an unrealistic date,” Palisa states. He confirms that Russia intends to mobilise 300,000 soldiers this year and a further 300,000 in the first half of next year. “If the Russians are still considering a final assault on the Donbas, they will have no choice but to resort to a manoeuvre such as mobilisation,” he says. Ukraine, meanwhile, intends to further intensify its surprise attack operations against Russian territory and damage the enemy’s military and economic infrastructure. “We are capable of taking the war into a new phase,” believes Palisa. During his conversation with journalists, another air-raid siren sounds in Kyiv, but the meeting is not interrupted.