Ukrainians are now stocking up on semiautomatic shotguns to take out Russian drones

From the gun cabinet of his shooting range, Volodymyr Sukhomlyn pulls out a semiautomatic shotgun. In pre-war Ukraine, such weapons were popular as sporting guns, used for hunting duck, hares and the odd fox. Today they are in demand against a new deadly predator in the sky — which, unlike the local buzzards and eagles, preys on humans rather than animals. Zaporizhzhia is now plagued by Russian FPV or First-Person-View drones, which allow a pilot to fly a bomb directly onto a target.They can buzz over a combat zone like giant mosquitoes, before swooping down and blowing their victims to pieces. The safest response is generally to dash for cover — but in skilled hands, a shotgun might just take one out.

Since FPVs began prowling Zaporizhzhia’s southern outskirts this summer, Sukhomlyn has been doing a roaring trade selling 12-gauge and 20-gauge models to residents, who buy them as a final line of defense. “When the war first broke out, it was mainly rifles that people wanted,” Sukhomlyn, a 46-year-old father of three, told The Post.“Now it’s shotguns that are in demand.

If you train properly, your chances of bringing an FPV down are quite high.Although it may come for you while you try to shoot it, so you need a very steady nerve.” A city of 750,000, Zaporizhzhia sits on the River Dnipro in eastern Ukraine and is a key industrial hub.Capturing it would be a major prize for Vladimir Putin, although four years into the war, the nearest Russian troops still remain around 20 miles south-east. In the meantime, they are harassing the city from the air, sending in FPVS, missiles and Iranian-made shaheed drones — gasoline-powered UAVs that emit a lawnmower-like wine.

Last week, an overnight shaheed salvo landed a mile from the hotel I was staying in, wrecking a large shopping mall. It was the third mall to be hit in two months, along with attacks on gas stations, coffee stands and private homes.Sukhomlyn jokes that his shooting range, in an unde...