Ukraine's Zelenskiy says interceptors downed many Russian drones overnight

(Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that interceptor drones had proved effective in downing many Russian drones deployed in an overnight Russian attack on Kyiv and issued a new call for their rapid development and production.

Zelenskiy noted the hours-long assault, the largest in the 40-month-old war with more than 500 Russian drones and missiles deployed, had been "difficult, but a significant portion were still shot down".

"Today also brought important results from our interceptor drones. Dozens of Shaheds (Iranian-designed drones) were shot down specifically by these interceptors," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

"We are scaling this up as much as possible. More production of these interceptor drones, more training and more preparation for our drone operators. This is a clear task."

Zelenskiy has long focused on manufacturing and developing drones, an industry that was virtually non-existent when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour in February 2022.

In recent weeks, he has spoken more specifically of the need to develop drone interceptors to parry increasingly intensive attacks by swarms of Russian drones, deployed along with missiles.

Last month, the president noted that Ukrainian companies had already boosted production of the interceptors in response to the increasingly frequent and destructive Russian attacks.

Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat said last month that developing interceptor drones would help Ukraine use its resources more rationally in fending off Russian attacks, rather than relying on missiles and aircraft.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander Kozhukhar)