Ukraine's Air Force reveals the most valuable knowledge gained from salvaged Shahed UAVs

Colonel Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for Ukraine's Air Force, has explained that Ukraine is studying examples of Shahed loitering munitions, both captured intact and recovered as wreckage after interception, to add to their evidence of Russian war crimes and to learn how best to fight these UAVs.

Source: Army Inform, the news agency of Ukraine's Ministry of Defence, citing Ihnat during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Details: When the presenter asked whether Ukrainian soldiers restarted the captured Shaheds and launched them back towards the Russians, Yurii Ihnat chuckled: "You would love to, wouldn’t you?"

"Well, perhaps it wouldn’t be sensible. Perhaps it would be better to sell them to some military artefact collector and buy 10 Ukrainian-made [UAVs] for that money. Well, I'm just kidding," the officer replied.

At the same time, Ihnat explained that the most valuable thing Ukraine has gained from analysing the downed drones is the ability to inform its international allies that their sanctions against Russia are not working as intended - the presence of Western computer components in the drones is physical evidence that Russia has bypassed sanctions in its efforts to create weapons and kill Ukrainians. Moreover, he added, Ukrainian defenders are also learning how to better counter the threat of Shaheds by studying the units.

Quote: "The most valuable thing these drones can reveal is whether their design is being changed [to decrease the effectiveness of Ukrainian defences]. But the main benefit is the ability to take the surviving remains [of the UAVs] and once again show our partners whose components Iran and Russia are using in their weapons destined to kill Ukrainians, in order to strengthen the oversight of sanctions."

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