Midnight March 10–11, 2025, the Ukrainian Defense Forces carried out a long-range kamikaze drone attack on the enemy territory which reportedly became the most massive since russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Media outlets in russia report 337 unmanned aerial vehicles were intercepted by air defense, the total number of UAVs launched by Ukraine was not specified.
The highlight of this aerial raid was the new Ukrainian long-range drone that made its appearance, possibly for the first time. One of the videos filmed by eyewitnesses during the attack recorded the moment a UAV, visually resembling the iranian Shahed-136, was taken down by a russian air defense system, probably a Pantsir-S1 SAM.
The public appearance of this “Ukrainian Shahed” coincided with the disclosure of a Ukrainian development with a similar design, the UAS SETH kamikaze drone. However, as News Hub pointed out, the UAS SETH only looked like the Shahed-136, while conceptually, it is closer to the Lancet tactical loitering munition. In contrast, the drone that attacked Moscow tonight echoes the Shahed not only in form but also in function.
At this point, it is yet too difficult to assess the specifications and capabilities of this drone but some features can be spotted through observation. For example, the drone’s relatively large size points to a warhead weight of about a few dozen kilograms, theoretically. As for the range, if the video was really made near Moscow, the distance it had travelled should be no less than 600 km. The drone was also painted black, perhaps to make it less conspicuous to russian mobile fire groups — i.e. light infantry armed with anti-aircraft guns on trucks or MANPADS.
A detail worth paying attention to is that its design does not fully replicate Shahed. There are some important differences, in particular, judging by the available footage, the Ukrainian variant has canards — smaller forewings in the head of the fuselage. That is, it employs a slightly different wing configuration, likely to increase its maneuverability and improve controllability.
In addition, on its belly, near the engine, you can see an interesting detail shaped like an air keel or antenna, but it is too small to be the keel, and the drone fies too far for it to be a remote control antenna. Therefore, a more likely option is that this is a hook for launching the drone from a catapult.