According to the latest that I’ve read, these “Gerbera” type drones (“Shahed imitators” but dangerous enough to do damage) carried an extra fuel tank that isn’t found in Gerberas that fly in Ukraine.

Seems like a deliberate test of response.

I think the response of shooting them down was correct. I hope that a minimum of information about operating procedures leaked during work. I hope the shootdown was cheap (e.g. planes or helicopters using autocannon instead of missiles) because Gerberas are cheap, dirt cheap.

Some additional message needs to be figured out by NATO countries and communicated (more likely via practical action, since talk is cheap) from which a conclusion of “let’s not do it again” would be read out in Moscow. Preventing a few oil tankers from reaching St. Petersburg to load Russian oil might be one option.

Also, the question of “what’s on our menu for countering dirt cheap weapons” needs to be asked in many countries, and likely has been being asked for a while now. My bet: air-dropped unpowered glide vehicles that intercept a drone. No motor, just enough velocity and altitude from the fighter (or farmer) which brought them.