What are ‘kamikaze’ Shahed drones and how do they work?

A drone is seen in the sky seconds before it fired on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

They are precise, small, able to engage a target in relatively large numbers like a swarm of wasps and above all, they are cheap.

In Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, drones have cemented their reputation as a potent, hard-to-stop and cost-effective weapon to seek out and destroy targets while simultaneously spreading the kind of terror that can fray the resolve of soldiers and civilians alike.