Ukrainian ex-minister proposed to protect energy facilities from drones with searchlights and machine guns

Former Minister of Housing and Public Utilities of Ukraine Oleksiy Kucherenko urged to protect the country’s energy facilities from Russian drones with searchlights and machine guns.

He noted that on Friday, a blow was struck “on one important infrastructure facility.”

According to him, Shahed-type drones are very poorly identified by air defense systems, but they fly at an altitude of 400 meters at a speed of 180 km/h.

“They are very noisy and quite easily detected by elementary acoustic devices and are effectively knocked down by simple machine-gun and anti-aircraft systems, which have been enough in warehouses since Soviet times. I am convinced that simple searchlight systems (electricians on “objects” by a shaft) can significantly help shooting crews in this process,” he wrote.

He expressed regret that the Ukrainian authorities have not yet organized such protection at key facilities, although there are “not very many” of them.

“But the consequences of their defeat are very powerful, and we have been feeling it for ourselves lately. There is one logical question – why?!”, he wrote in social networks.

On October 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a massive strike with precision-guided weapons on Ukrainian infrastructure. He accused Ukraine of the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge, and said that Kyiv has put itself on a par with the most odious terrorist groups. Putin also said that it was simply impossible to leave the crimes of the Kyiv regime unanswered. Since then, air raid alerts have been announced in the Ukrainian regions every day, sometimes all over the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on October 18 that 35-45% of power plants in Ukraine had been destroyed, leading to massive power outages.