People look at an Iranian-designed HESA Shahed 136 (Geran-2) drone at an open-air exhibition of destroyed Russian military equipment on Mykhailivska Square in front of Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral, in Kyiv on April 7. | AFP-JIJI

KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine – In a foggy field in northeast Ukraine, four soldiers stare at red and yellow dots on a screen in ⁠the back of a van, armed with interceptor drones and energy drinks to get through the night.

These pilots, and about a thousand other crews like them, are on the frontlines of Ukraine's drive to knock one of Russia's most potent weapons out of the war: the Shahed drone.

"Even if you use 50 drones to shoot down one Shahed, it's worth it," said Borys, the commander of the crew, who was a TV news producer before the war upended his life.…