The president of Ukraine says that Russia is planning a long-term campaign of drone attacks to make Ukraine feel bad.
Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had heard from intelligence sources that the attacks would be carried out by Shahed drones made in Iran.
It comes after the Ukraine carried out an attack in the Donbas region that it said killed hundreds of Russian soldiers.
Russia said that the attack killed 63 of its troops on the battlefield, which is a very rare admission.
In his nightly address from Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky said that Russia was planning to “wear out” Ukraine with a long series of drone attacks.
He said, “We must make sure, and we will do everything we can to make sure, that this terrorist goal fails just like all the others.” “Now is a time when everyone who works to protect the sky needs to pay extra attention.”
The number of Russian drone attacks on Ukraine seems to have gone up in the past few days. Over the past three nights, Moscow has attacked cities and power plants all over the country.
Mr. Zelensky said that in the first few days of 2023, Ukrainian air defences had already shot down more than 80 drones made in Iran.
Russia has been going after Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for a few months, destroying power plants and leaving millions of people without power during the freezing winter.
In other news, the Ukraine has confirmed that it carried out an attack in the occupied area of Donetsk, which it had previously said killed 400 Russian soldiers.
The number was disputed by Russian officials, who said that only 63 troops had died. Neither claim has been checked out, and the site is closed to the public.
On New Year’s Day, the Ukrainian attack hit a building in Makiivka where Russian troops were stationed.
Moscow almost never confirms that anyone has died on the battlefield.
But, says Steve Rosenberg, the BBC’s Russia editor, this attack was so deadly that people probably couldn’t stay quiet.
It is the most people who have died in one single event since the war started 10 months ago.
Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement on Monday that Ukrainian forces used the US-made Himars rocket system to fire six rockets at a building where Russian troops were staying. It also said that two of them were shot down.
Igor Girkin, a pro-Russian commentator, said earlier that hundreds of people had been killed or hurt, but the exact number was not known because so many people were still missing.
He said that “almost all” of the building had been destroyed.
He also said that most of the people who died were recently mobilised troops, not people who chose to fight. He also said that the soldiers’ ammunition was kept in the same building as them, which made things worse.
“Nearly all of the military equipment, which was right next to the building with no cover,” he wrote on Telegram, was also destroyed.
Girkin is a well-known military blogger who led separatists who were backed by Russia when they took over a lot of eastern Ukraine in 2014. He was recently found guilty of murder for his part in bringing down flight MH17 by shooting at it.
Even though he is a hawk, he often criticises the Russian military leadership and how they do things.
Several Russian lawmakers have also harshly criticised military commanders for the attack. They say commanders should be held accountable for letting troops gather in an unprotected building where Ukrainian rockets could reach and where ammunition may have been kept.
Sergei Mironov, who used to be the head of the Russian Senate, said that it was clear that neither intelligence nor air defence had worked well.
The Ukrainian military said earlier that, in addition to the estimated 400 deaths, 300 people were hurt. Almost every day, the Ukrainian army says that attacks have killed dozens or even hundreds of soldiers.
In a later statement, the general staff of the Ukrainian military said that the strikes “destroyed and damaged up to 10 units of enemy military equipment” and that “the losses of personnel of the occupiers are being specified.”
Ukraine hasn’t said for sure that the attacks were done with Himars missiles. This is part of a long-standing plan to keep specific details about its attacks secret.
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