Interceptors designed to counter jet-powered Shaheds, developed by two Ukrainian companies, have passed combat testing and already have confirmed kills.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this while speaking to the media together with the leaders of the Carpathian Eight.

The meeting took place in Ivano-Frankivsk region, where the founding summit of the new regional format, the Carpathian Eight, opened on 18 September. The summit is being held in Bukovel from 18 to 20 September and brings together Ukraine and seven states of the Carpathian region, as well as representatives of the European Union. Topics include security, economic cooperation, energy, logistics and cross-border projects.

It was there that Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave further details of the latest tests of Ukrainian systems against this new aerial threat.

“Interceptors for jet-powered Shaheds from two companies now have successfully passed combat testing. Enemy Shaheds were destroyed at high speed. This is a big positive,” he said.

The two successful interceptions reported over the past few days therefore involved systems developed by different Ukrainian companies.

As ArmyInform reported earlier, on 15 September the President announced the successful test of one of the new interceptors: it shot down a jet-powered Shahed, although certain elements of its control system still needed refinement.

On 17 September, news emerged of another positive result: during further testing, a jet-powered Shahed was again shot down. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the time that the solution would be scaled up.

The President has now clarified that interceptors from two companies have proven their capability in combat conditions.

The next task is to move from individual successful tests to mass production.

“We want to see all the tests and look at how this can be accelerated as much as possible and brought into mass production. We are talking to these companies, and contracts are already being signed,” the President said.

Ukraine accelerated development of high-speed interceptors against jet-powered Shaheds in early September. At the time, the President said prototypes had already been built and that the key task was to bring them up to the required effectiveness and set up production in sufficient numbers.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the two companies’ results a success, but stressed that funding is needed to move to serial production.

“These two examples already give us optimism, a positive outlook and faith. But on top of faith and optimism, money is also needed,” he said.

According to the President, he discussed the funding issue the previous day with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. The two sides are preparing proposals to cover the funding shortfall and plan to continue talks shortly.