The newest automated remote-controlled turrets joined Kyiv Oblast's air defense layer overnight on 2 June as Russia launched a "massive" drone-and-missile attack. The strike on the region continues, practically without pause throughout the night, Regional military administration Head Mykola Kalashnyk reports.
In 2025, Ukraine announced the deployment of AI-guided defense towers to counter the escalating threat posed by Russian drone attacks.
The latest Russian attack involved 729 weapons, with the main targets being Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Kyiv. Russia used 8 Zircon hypersonic missiles and 33 Iskander ballistic missiles, alongside 656 drones.
"Enemy targets tonight were shot down by our newest automated remote-controlled turrets, as well as by other air-defense means. Part of them were suppressed by electronic-warfare assets," Kalashnyk said.
"Clean Sky" brought down nearly 100 drones
Operators of Ukraine's "Clean Sky" anti-drone project shot down nearly 100 Russian drones on the oblast's perimeters during the latest attack alone, Kalashnyk said.
He framed the layered defense, including automated turrets, mobile fire groups, electronic warfare, and missile-based systems, as the operational response to Russia's drone-saturation tactic, with multiple Russian munitions still penetrating to civilian targets.
Automated-turret trajectory
Sky Sentinel and similar Ukrainian-built turret systems are designed for layered, cost-effective air defense against the kind of mass drone barrages Russia has launched at Ukrainian cities and infrastructure in recent months.
Meanwhile, the UK is also delivering more than 20 remotely guided counter-drone turrets, acquired from Estonia, to Ukraine in 2026 as part of a £600 million air-defense package, the UK government announced in November 2025.
The combined trajectory is to build automated cannon-and-radar systems as a sustainable layer beneath the missile-based Patriot, SAMP/T, and IRIS-T systems that handle ballistic and cruise threats.
Read also
-
Black Sea grain war escalates: Ukraine knocked out most of Russia’s grain exports, and Russia is now sinking ships off Romania and Bulgaria
-
Ukraine’s military now orders supplies based on real front-line data, not guesswork, lawmaker says. Shift comes under new commander-in-chief
-
Posting strike videos online may help Russia tune its drones’ optical targeting. Moscow now pays people to film hits, Ukrainian adviser warns
