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

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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.

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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........

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