'We stop death here' The unit defending Ukraine from drone and missile attacks

In a small wood in the Kyiv region Anatoliy Shyshak stared at the night sky. Dusk was falling.

- Luke Harding

The only sounds came from a thrush nightingale and a faraway yapping dog. Shyshak - a sergeant in Ukraine's territorial army - was listening for something else: an enemy drone. "It sounds like a moped. Not a classy Italian one, but something cheap and horrible," he said. "They fly between 100 and 300 metres above the ground. You hear a buzzing." For the past year Shyshak's brigade, the 241st, has scoured the heavens for Russian flying objects.

Its task is to shoot them down before they can reach the capital. He and his territorial defence colleagues are based about 60 miles east of Kyiv, along one of several drone flight paths. "I like my job. We are pretty successful. We stop death here. Our families are in Kyiv so we are protecting our wives and children," he said.

Since war began in 2022, the Kremlin has launched numerous air attacks across Ukraine, against towns and cities. It has used an array of deadly weapons including kamikaze drones - at least 4,600 of them - and hypersonic ballistic missiles. Last year many were taken out. But in recent months the interception rate has fallen to about 60%, largely because Republicans in the US Congress delayed a $61bn (£49bn) package of military assistance including vital air defences.

The consequences have been grim. Last week Russia fired a rocket carrying cluster munitions at the port of Odesa, killing five civilians. A law academy building known as Harry Potter's castle caught fire. Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv, only 25 miles from the Russian border, has been pulverised.