Ukrainian firm vows to build 'wall of jammers’ to blind Russian drones across frontline
"Our mission is to protect such cities and to protect civilians"
A Ukrainian defence firm is building a "wall of drones" stretching across the front line to protect soldiers and civilians from relentless Russian strikes.
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The company, which produced Ukraine’s first anti-drone gun in 2017, is now leading Project Atlas - a vast electronic warfare network designed to jam and disable enemy drones over more than 1,300 kilometres of territory.
"Our mission is to protect such cities and to protect civilians, because they are not military.
"It’s a horrible situation," CEO Yaroslav Filimonov told LBC.
The first stage of the plan focuses on supporting the military, while the second aims to "close the sky" over Ukrainian cities near occupied regions such as Nikopol — a community regularly hit by Russian drone strikes from across the Dnipro River.
"We are representing the new ecosystem in electronic warfare," Mr Filimonov said.
Read More: Three dead and 29 injured after overnight Russian drone attack on Kyiv
So far, around 300 kilometres of the front line have been fortified with the technology but to close all 1,300 kilometres they would need £100 million worth of resources.
Funding for the system is coming from a patchwork of sources.
"Partly our country buying, partly our brigades buying, partly the charity funds and businesses buying."
At the heart of the network is a new automated jamming system, where soldiers can suppress drones "just by pushing the one button".
"This means that the soldiers don’t need to go under fire," Mr Filimonov explained
The system can detect and jam "all types of drones" by blocking their radio frequencies and disabling their control signals.
This comes as a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital killed three people in their homes, local authorities have said.
At least 29 people were injured, seven of them children, on Sunday, in what was the second consecutive nighttime attack on Kyiv to claim civilian lives.
Ukraine's interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said a 19-year-old woman and her 46-year-old mother were among those killed.
Russian drones caused fires in two residential buildings in the capital's Desnianskyi district.
Emergency crews evacuated civilians from a nine-storey building and a 16-storey complex.