Ukraine has learnt how to hack the Iranian-designed kamikaze drones that are flooding its airspace and send them back to Russia and Belarus, according to reports.

Russia is now producing more than 6,000 Shahed-style drones per year at a plant in Yelabuga in the south-eastern Tatarstan region. Its forces fire between 30 and 80 of the “loitering munitions” in the direction of Ukrainian cities each day.

The volume of attacks has been a challenge for Ukraine’s air defence units, which are running low on costly, Western surface-to-air missiles.