Espreso asked military analyst Serhiy Zgurets, CEO of the media and consulting cimpany Defense Express, whether Ukraine should expect further massive Russian drone attacks on the west of the country, what Russia’s goal is with such strikes, and how Ukraine can respond.Russia targets military sites and infrastructure - anything that could affect civilian resilienceUkraine is facing a sharp rise in Russian drone attacks. The aggressor country is not only increasing the frequency but also the scale — with some assaults involving up to 700 drones at once. About half are Shahed-type strike UAVs, while the rest are decoy drones meant to overload Ukraine’s air defenses.“If we’re talking about Russian drone attacks, they are indeed growing, both in frequency and in the number of attack weapons used. In some cases, the enemy launched up to 700 drones, half of them Shaheds, the rest meant to distract air defense,” the expert said.Russia appears to have two main objectives with these attacks.“The standard tactic is to weaken resistance, exhaust the population, and provoke internal sentiment that we should accept peace at any cost, because living under constant attack feels unbearable. That’s exactly what the enemy counts on, using psychological and informational pressure,” Serhiy Zgurets explained.According to him, Russia targets military facilities and, along the way, strikes infrastructure critical to civilian resilience — such as railway stations, power grids, and heating networks.“The enemy’s approach hasn’t changed — only the scale, as Russia now has the capacity to produce more Shaheds and other drones. Recent strikes on western cities like Lviv, previously considered safe, are part of this broader strategy: to make the west feel unsafe and undermine the country’s stability,” Zgurets said.Massive drone attacks on west of country are unlikely to be frequentAs for attacks on military targets, the military analyst explains, attacks on infrastructure affect the ability to meet certain military needs."Strikes on airfields remain a priority for the enemy when we talk about individual airfields that could also be under attack. We don't know the full list of military targets, so we can't draw any conclusions from the latest strikes in the west of the country. We can conclude that the enemy used a significant number of drones in a new tactic, when they entered infrastructure facilities in pairs, including Lviv. There were at least four incursions, two by two, which tried to hit objects near the railroad tracks."The targets in the western region, according to the expert, are primarily airfields, gas energy and infrastructure that is considered critical. However, the military analyst believes that attacks on the western regions with so many UAVs are unlikely to be frequent, as it is quite difficult for Russians to carry them out."Russia's main focus is on striking the capital. In addition, drone strikes in the west of the country are somewhat difficult due to the length of the trajectory. The Russians tried to set up variations when the drones were moving toward the border with Belarus to suddenly appear in certain areas, but in any case, this direction is somewhat more difficult for the enemy to prepare and ensure launches than in other areas. Therefore, we should hardly expect this story to be frequent. But we cannot rule out that from time to time Russia will use strikes on the west of the country in the context of strengthening information and psychological influence on our citizens," says Serhiy Zgurets.Russia's industrial capacitiesIn addition, the expert doubts that Russia will be able to keep up the pace of attacks of 700+ drones per day demonstrated in early July."700 drones per night is the maximum figure, while the average for the month is about 120 drones per day. We estimate the Russians' production rate of shaheeds at 90-100 per day. Let's add here another 80 Gerber decoys, which are also used in attacks. Russia will reach a new level, when it will be able to attack the entire month with 700-1000 drones a day, when it completes the construction of a plant in Yelabuga with new facilities. I think this is a matter of six months or more. For now, these figures will still fluctuate between 200 and 700," said Zgurets.When the Russians decide to exceed the daily limit by several times and launch 700 drones at night, the expert says, they choose targets so that mass attacks can be directed at one city."This complicates the work of air defense and immediately brings to the fore the strategy of the Ukrainian side - how it will counteract the increase in the number of drones in different cities. And now we know that a lot of effort is being put into creating interceptor drones as one of the alternative solutions in terms of efficiency and cost. This is the most rational approach," the analyst believes.Ukraine is also working to increase other production capacities. We are even talking about light aircraft, as well as other methods that do not use anti-aircraft missiles."One Shahed UAV costs an average of 200 ,000 dollars. Therefore, the use of missiles, which are more expensive, is not rational. Interceptor drones cost within 5 thousand dollars, and this is exactly the direction that is now being invested in our strategy to combat the superior numbers," Zgurets summarized.