Moscow is planning a protracted campaign of drone attacks in a bid to demoralize Ukraine, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky claims, citing intelligence reports suggesting that Russia would be using Iranian-made Shahid drones to launch the attacks.
According to the reports Zelensky reportedly received, Moscow is planning to exhaust his country with a prolonged wave of drone attacks.
During his nightly address from Kyiv on Monday, Ukraine’s president emphasized how important it is for them to ensure that this goal of Moscow fails like all the others – pledging at the same time to do everything to accomplish that- and reminded everyone in Ukraine involved in the protection of the sky to be especially attentive.
Over the past three nights, it appears that Russian drone strikes on Ukraine have increased with Moscow targeting and destroying the cities and power stations across the country after previously targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for several months and plunging millions of Ukrainians into darkness during the freezing winter.
Over 80 Iranian-made drones have already been shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses in the opening days of 2023, Zelensky pointed out.
Meanwhile, in a rare admission of battlefield losses, Moscow has informed that dozens of Russian troops have been killed in a strike that Ukraine carried out in the Donbas region on New Year’s Day.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the deadly attack took place in the city of Makeyevka in Donetsk People’s Republic after the bombardment hit a temporary housing area used by the Russian forces in Donbass when the projectiles hit a building where Russian troops were stationed.
The Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said during a briefing that Makeyevka was targeted by six missiles from US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, two of which were intercepted by Russian air defenses, but four projectiles with high-explosive warheads, however, made it through, killing 63 Russian servicemen on the temporary deployment point.
The US-supplied precision weapon has proven critical in enabling Kyiv forces to hit key targets, delivering a new setback for Moscow which has reeled from a Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent months.
Since the war began ten months ago, this is the highest number of deaths acknowledged by Moscow in a single incident.