Ukraine Builds ‘Anti-Drone Dome’ With Interceptor UAVs, Mobile Air Defense Teams

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are rolling out a revamped air defense model built around small, mobile teams using interceptor drones, as the country braces for new waves of Russian energy strikes, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday.

Ukraine is reeling from near-weekly Russian barrages that have knocked out power and heating across thousands of homes in Kyiv and beyond, laying bare gaps in the country’s air defenses.

In his nightly video address, Zelensky said the Air Force would adopt “a new approach” focused on mobile fire groups, interceptor drones, and other short-range air defense assets.

 “This system will be transformed,” the president said.

As part of the overhaul, Zelensky announced the appointment of Pavlo Yelizarov as a new deputy commander of the Air Force, placing one of Ukraine’s most experienced drone warfare commanders in charge of developing the concept and scaling it nationwide.

Yelizarov will oversee the expansion of small, specialized drone interception units into a countrywide network, according to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

“Our task is to build an anti-drone dome over Ukraine – a system that does not react after the fact, but destroys the threat even during its approach,” Fedorov said,

Russian aerial attacks escalated sharply in 2025. According to Fedorov, Moscow launched up to 100,000 drones at Ukraine last year, damaging homes and critical infrastructure nationwide. The year was also the deadliest for civilians since 2022, when the full-scale invasion began.

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Fedorov added that a National Guard drone unit previously led by Yelizarov destroyed more than $13 billion worth of Russian military equipment during the war, with Yelizarov’s unit responsible for roughly one in five Russian tanks destroyed by Ukrainian forces.

A former businessman and television producer, Yelizarov joined Ukraine’s territorial defense after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. He later transferred to the Special Operations Forces, where he began assembling combat drones, before forming his own drone unit – the Lasar Group – under the National Guard.

Before the war, Yelizarov produced the political talk show Svoboda Slova (“Freedom of Speech”), which often took a critical stance toward Zelensky and his Servant of the People party. 

Zelensky said earlier this month that Ukraine had received a major air defense assistance package from its partners, but noted it arrived as several surface-to-air missile systems were left “without missiles” – underscoring the need for cheaper, faster interception methods.

Since February 2022, Ukraine has rapidly expanded domestic drone production, increasingly relying on interceptor UAVs to counter Russian cruise missiles, Shahed-type attack drones, and reconnaissance platforms at a fraction of the cost of traditional surface-to-air missiles.