Photographers Capture Russian ‘Suicide Drones’ Before Impact in Ukraine

Reports started to surface last month that Iran was supplying Russia with so-called suicide drones, sent to attack civilian targets in Ukraine. And now stunning new images of what those drones look like in the air have been captured by photographers in Kyiv as the city suffered fresh attacks on Monday.

The photos of the drones were captured by Yasuyoshi Chiba and Sergei Supinsky on Monday as Russia launched another offensive against Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million that saw missiles rain down from Russia just a week ago.

The drones appear to match the physical description of Iran’s HESA Shahed-136 drone, a so-called “swarming” aerial weapon that’s launched almost horizontally and contains a warhead in its nose. Russia has renamed the Shahed drones Geran-2, according to the Associated Press. Officially, Iran has denied supplying weapons to Russia since it first invaded Ukraine on February 24.

While some of the drones were shot down by Ukraine on Monday, Russia succeeded in hitting at least four targets in Kyiv, including a residential building and a train station. At least one person died in the attacks, according to Kyiv’s mayor.

Click through for more images from Monday, including Chiba’s photos of the aftermath of the drones, as well as images captured by other photographers in Kyiv today.