Jet-powered UAVs make up two-thirds of some Russian strike packages, says Ukrainian Air Force

An image of a Russian Geran-3 UAV published by Defence Intelligence of Ukraine on 16 September 2025. (DIU)

As many as two-thirds of Russian one-way attack (OWA) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) used in “some of its strikes” against Ukraine are jet-powered, Colonel Yurii Ignat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, said in a 14 August 2026 statement on social media.

As of August 2026 pusher propeller versions, what Col Ignat called the “standard Shahed,” still outnumber jet-powered Geran UAVs overall in Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine. However, he added that of dpusher propeller versions overall, “in July, the enemy [Russia] deployed five times as many jet-powered UAVs as in June.”

OWA UAVs

Russia has introduced several jet-powered variants of its Geran fleet of OWA UAVs. This includes the Geran-3, Geran-4, and Geran-5 platforms. In a 10 August 2026 interview with a Ukrainian media outlet, Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), said Russia is working on restructuring its manufacturing process to focus production on Geran-4 and Geran-5 turbojet-powered OWA UAVs.

In June 2026, Ukraine's then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russia was planning for 50% of its long-range OWA UAVs used against Ukraine to be jet-powered.

In June the number of jet-engined UAVs that Russia was using against Ukraine stood at around 15%, J anes was told by Ihor Fedirko, CEO of the Ukrainian Council of Defence Industry (UCDI). Fedirko also said in early June that it was difficult to identify which variant of jet-powered Geran a UAV was unless it was shot down. “We are collecting data on them so it will be easier to understand [for us] whether this is a [jet-powered] Geran-3 or Geran-5,” he said.