 As Ukraine braces for a second winter of assault drones and missiles pummeling its critical infrastructure, it hopes that its air defense crews, bolstered with new western systems, can stop the country from being plunged into darkness. The threat of Russian strikes on Ukraine's power grid is now even more acute as Moscow has set up its own facilities to manufacture assault drones based on the Iranian Shahid 136. Nearly half of Ukraine's energy system was damaged by Russian attacks last winter, when Moscow fired hundreds of Shahid drones alongside faster and heavier cruise missiles to hit power plants and transformers. Key of hopes to counter the renewed threat with a bolstered lineup of air defenses, including newly donated German-made Jeopard Flak guns a sleek green turret mounted onto the chassis of a battle tank. Serhii Naiv, one of Ukraine's most senior generals, told Reuters the armed forces were bracing for another winter of Russian strikes on key infrastructure. Naiv would not be drawn on the numbers of systems involved in such a vast defense effort, but said Ukraine's air defense arsenal had been bolstered by the supply of new equipment from Ukraine's allies.