Ukraine just tested a drone built to kill Russia's fastest Shaheds

Ukraine just tested a new drone-killer. And it actually worked.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's President, says the new German-Ukrainian interceptor drone just passed its first successful test against a Russian jet-powered Shahed. That's the fast new drone Ukraine has been struggling hardest to stop.

He announced it today in Kyiv. The place matters here. It was a business forum, held during a surprise visit from Friedrich Merz, Germany's Chancellor. Merz showed up unannounced. He brought Germany's Economy Minister with him, plus executives from Siemens Energy, Hensoldt, Diehl Defence and Quantum Systems.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says quote "the test was successful". He thanked Quantum Systems, the German company behind it.

So what is this thing? It's called SPYS. Built by WIY Drones, a Ukrainian manufacturer, working with Quantum WIY Industries. That's a joint venture WIY Drones formed with Germany's Quantum Systems back in April. SPYS is an upgraded version of an older interceptor called Strila.

Now, what can it actually do? Its own makers say up to 600 kilometres an hour. A 300-gram payload. It can hit targets up to 12 kilometres away. But one trade outlet reported a different top speed, 500 kilometres an hour. Neither number has been independently tested. Both come from the manufacturer.

The first 50 SPYS drones went to Ukraine's military in July, for combat testing. And here's the thing. The successful hit on a Russian Geran-5 — that's a jet-powered Shahed — was filmed and reported by Ukrainian and German outlets about three weeks before today. So Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn't revealing a new test today. He was confirming, in public, next to the manufacturer, a result that had already gone around.

Here's why that one interception actually matters. Russia has started bolting jet engines onto its Shahed drones. That makes them far faster than the propeller-driven version Ukraine has spent three years learning to shoot down. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia launched around 900 jet-powered drones in a single week. Ukraine was only stopping about half of them.

Two days before today, in a Financial Times interview, Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave fuller numbers. Ukraine is destroying about 57% of jet-powered drones. Against 85 to 90% of the older, slower kind. He says five different interceptor models are being tested right now. One should hit about 400 units a month in production by the end of October.

SPYS is one of those five. It's not yet clear which.

And today's SPYS news sat inside a much bigger pile of deals. Ukraine and Germany signed 15 defence agreements. Volodymyr Zelenskyy values them at more than €8.5 billion. On top of that, Friedrich Merz announced a fresh German aid package worth over €1.3 billion. About €1 billion of it is military aid — long-range strike weapons, combat drones, satellite technology. Around €350 million goes to Ukraine's energy sector.

Inside that package, Ukraine's defence ministry signed a deal with Germany's Diehl Defense for thousands of IRIS-T missiles and systems, plus artillery shells. There's a separate deal with Hensoldt on surveillance radars. And another with Quantum Systems, specifically on testing and buying more interceptors for jet-powered drones.

Germany is already Ukraine's biggest single donor. It has sent more than €43.3 billion since the war began.

This visit happened days after a Russian strike hit a National Academy of Sciences building in central Kyiv. Two people were killed. Friedrich Merz and Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to the site together. Air raid sirens sounded while they were there.

Friedrich Merz told Ukraine that if Russia is not stopped, its war machine will eventually turn on the rest of Europe. He said Ukraine could keep counting on German help.

Russia hasn't responded to the SPYS announcement. Its jet-powered drones kept flying at Ukrainian cities through the day anyway.

So what don't we know? How many SPYS units are actually in service beyond that first batch of 50. Whether Germany will build the system on its own soil, or just fund Ukrainian production. How fast output can scale up. And whether Kyiv or Berlin plan to sell it to other NATO countries. Even the top speed is still disputed — 600 km/h or 500 km/h — and nobody has settled which is right.

For now, one interceptor has hit one jet-powered drone. And Russia is still launching hundreds of them a week.