San Francisco Frontiers - Ukraine lets firms deploy air defences against Russian attacks

In an interview with AFP, a senior Ukrainian military official detailed the plan -- involving state authorisation and integration into the air force coordination system -- that has already attracted over a dozen companies.

The goal is to give businesses "the possibility, at their own expense and with their own employees, to protect themselves against aerial threats," Yuriy Myronenko, 48, inspector general at the Ukrainian defence ministry and the main architect of the project, told AFP.

Since it invaded in 2022, Russia has regularly launched hundreds of long-range Shahed drones, originally Iranian-designed but now mass-produced in Russia, at Ukraine.

Cheap but lethal, the drones target residential areas and critical infrastructure, sometimes hundreds of kilometres from the front line.

The largest attack since the start of the invasion came at the end of March, when Russia fired nearly 1,000 drones in 24 hours, along with missiles.

Ukraine's air-defence system -- which includes thousands of mobile anti-drone teams -- is fairly effective but cannot cover the entire country.

That is why the defence ministry has opted to partly outsource the task to private actors, including energy companies, frequently targeted by Russian strikes, logistics firms and security groups to protect their sites.

For now, the Ukrainian authorities have released few details of the plan.

But Myronenko told AFP that 16 firms have received the necessary authorisation and "some companies are already shooting down Shaheds".

- Interceptors -

"I think we are the first in the world to create such a system," Myronenko said, referring to the plan he said was already yielding results.

"The first shoot-downs were two weeks ago," added the lieutenant-colonel who used to command a drone unit.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region, near the front line, one company -- unnamed for security reasons -- used heavy machine guns mounted on remote-controlled turrets to intercept several Russian drones.

After the defence ministry published a statement on the matter, "dozens" of other groups contacted the authorities to enquire about the scheme, Myronenko said.

"We don't expect private air defence to solve all our problems," he conceded. "We are forced to take this step because every opportunity to shoot down one, two, three, four, five Shaheds helps."

Companies wanting to take part must undergo a special authorisation process, including to rule out any Russian ties, before they can purchase weapons and train their staff.

They must also integrate into the air force's real-time coordination system, a key element of the sophisticated network that manages thousands of air-defence teams.

The special software allows commanders to see "who is shooting down what, with which systems, which teams," and to locate incoming targets, said Myronenko.

For him, the future of private air defence lies in drone interceptors -- small unmanned aircraft designed to destroy incoming drones mid-air.

Under the pressure of relentless attacks, Ukraine has already developed around 50 different interceptor models, an industry that barely existed a year ago.

- No limits -

Intense competition is pushing manufacturers to improve effectiveness while slashing costs, sometimes to less than $1,000 per unit, making them "affordable", Myronenko said.

In the longer term, private companies could even be allowed to acquire weapons capable of downing cruise missiles that Russia frequently uses against Ukraine, such as man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADS), he added.

"We don't limit what protective means they can buy," he said, adding: "because we understand that the war will change in three months, six months."

The main goal set by defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov -- appointed in January -- for this year is to "detect 100 percent of all air targets", both drones and missiles, and "shoot down 95 percent of them," up from around 80 percent currently.

Myronenko called the target "absolutely realistic," citing the surge in interceptor production, with tens of thousands now being delivered to the army each month.

"We must clearly demonstrate (to Russia) that terrorising our population and civilian infrastructure will not work."

V.Perez--SFF