KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – A high-tech factory in central Russia has created a deadly new force to attack Ukraine: a small number of highly destructive thermobaric drones surrounded by huge swarms of cheap foam decoys.

The plan, which Russia has called Operation Fake Target, is meant to force Ukraine to spend limited resources to save lives and preserve critical infrastructure, including by using expensive air defense munitions, according to a person familiar with Russian production and a Ukrainian electronics expert who hunts them from his specially equipped van.

Not even radar, snipers, or even electronics experts can tell which drones are deadly in the sky.

Here’s what to know from the AP investigation:

A deadly mixture

Unarmed decoys now account for more than half of drones targeting Ukraine and up to 75 percent of new drones coming out of the factory in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone, according to the person familiar with Russian production, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the industry is highly sensitive, and the Ukrainian electronics expert.

The same plant makes a particularly deadly variant of the Shahed drone armed with thermobaric warheads, the person said.

During the first weekend of November, the Kiev region spent 20 hours on air and sound alert drones buzzed mixed with the burst of flak and rifle fire. In October, Moscow struck with at least 1,889 drones — 80 percent more than in August, according to an AP analysis that has been tracking drones for months.

Russia launched 145 drones across Ukraine on Saturday, just days after Donald Trump’s re-election called into question US support for the country.

Since the summer, most drones have been crashing, being shot down or being diverted by electronic jamming, according to an AP analysis of Ukrainian military briefings. Fewer than 6 percent have reached a discernible target, according to data analyzed by the AP since late July. But the high numbers mean a handful can escape every day – and that’s enough to be deadly.

The drone lab

The Alabuga area of ​​Tatarstan, an industrial complex about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow, is a laboratory for Russian drone production. Originally established in 2006 to attract business and investment to Tatarstan, it expanded after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and some sectors switched to military production, adding new buildings and renovating existing sites, according to satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press.

In social media videos, the factory promoted itself as an innovation hub. But David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington said Alabuga’s current purpose is only to produce and sell drones to the Russian Defense Ministry. The videos and other promotional media were removed after an AP investigation found that many of them African women recruited to fill the labor shortage there complained of being tricked into taking factory jobs.

Russia and Iran signed a $1.7 billion deal for Shahed in 2022 after President Vladimir Putin invaded neighboring Ukraine, and Moscow began using Iranian imports of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, in combat later that year . Shortly after the deal was signed, production began in Alabuga.

The most fearsome Shahed adaptation yet designed at the factory is armed with thermobaric, also known as vacuum bombs, said the person with knowledge of Russian drone production.

The plan to develop unarmed decoy drones at Alabuga was drawn up in late 2022, according to the person with knowledge of Russian drone production. Production of the baits began earlier this year, said the person, who spoke only on condition of anonymity. The factory now turns out about 40 unarmed drones a day and around 10 armed ones, which are more expensive and take longer to produce.

Vacuum bomb

From a military point of view, thermobars are ideal to track targets that are either inside fortified buildings or deep underground. They create a vortex of high pressure and heat that penetrates the thickest walls and at the same time sucks up all the oxygen in their path.

Alabuga’s thermobaric drones are particularly destructive when hitting buildings, as they are also loaded with ball bearings to deal maximum damage even beyond the superheated blast.

Serhii Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian electronics expert also known as Flash, whose black military van is equipped with electronic jammers to shoot down drones, said the thermobars were first used over the summer and estimated that they now represent between 3% and 5% of the total. drones.

They have a fearsome reputation because of the physical effects even on people caught outside the original blast site: collapsed lungs, crushed eyeballs, brain damage, according to Arthur van Coller, an expert in international humanitarian law at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa.

For Russia, the benefits are huge.

An unarmed drone costs considerably less than the estimated $50,000 for an armed Shahed drone and a fraction of the cost of even a relatively inexpensive air defense missile. A decoy with a live camera allows the aircraft to geolocate Ukraine’s air defenses and transmit the information to Russia in the final moments of its mechanical life. And swarms have become a demoralizing fact of life for Ukrainians.

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Burrows reported from Washington DC