Last Update: January 03, 2023, 15:44 IST
Local resident Mykola Kobzarenko shows the remains of a Russian suicide drone at the site of his damaged home in the village of Stary Bezradichi, Kyiv region, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine (File image: Reuters)
In the latest embarrassment for the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian troops were stationed, killing 63 of them
Russia is preparing to intensify its attack ukraine According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, using Iranian-made explosive drones as part of the Kremlin’s war strategy is Moscow looking for ways to keep the pressure on Kyiv after months of battlefield setbacks.
“We have information that Russia is planning a prolonged attack by martyrs (drone blasts),” Zelensky said in his video address late Monday.
He said the goal was to break Ukraine’s resistance by eliminating “our people, (our) air defense, our energy” more than 10 months after Russia invaded its neighbor.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is searching for how to bolster confidence in Moscow’s flawed war effort, which has been hit in recent months by a Ukrainian counteroffensive backed by Western-supplied weapons. This has drawn criticism of the military’s performance in some Russian circles.
In the latest embarrassment for the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian troops were stationed, killing 63 of them. It was one of the deadliest attacks on Kremlin forces since the war began more than 10 months ago.
Ukraine’s western-reinforced air defenses have made it difficult for Russian warplanes to carry out missile strikes. The Iranian-made explosive drone is a cheap weapon that instills fear among soldiers and civilians alike. The United States and its allies have reportedly disputed Tehran’s role in supplying drones to Moscow.
The Institute for the Study of War said Putin wanted to consolidate support for his strategy among the leading voices in Russia.
“Russia’s air and missile campaign against Ukraine is probably not producing the Kremlin’s desired information effect among Russian nationalists,” the think tank said late Monday.
It added, “Such serious military failures will continue to complicate Putin’s efforts to appease the Russian pro-war community and maintain the dominant narrative in the domestic information sphere.”
Zelensky warned that in the coming weeks, “the nights could get pretty restless.”
He said that during the first two days of the new year, which were marked by frequent nighttime drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, the country’s military shot down more than 80 Iranian-made drones.
As well as the hope of reducing Russia’s resistance to invasion, the long-range bombardment has targeted power grids leaving civilians to cut off winter weather as power surges sweep across the country.
“Every drone shot down, every missile shot down, every day of power for our people and minimal shutdown schedules are truly such a victory,” Zelensky said.
In the latest fighting, an overnight Russian missile attack on the town of Druzhkivka in the partially captured eastern Donetsk region wounded two people, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, reported on Tuesday.
Officials said the attack ruined an ice hockey arena described as the largest hockey and figure skating school in Ukraine.
Russian shelling was also reported overnight in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Ukrainian governor of Kherson, Yaroslav Yanushevich, said on Tuesday that two people were killed and nine others wounded on Monday in Russian shelling, in recently recaptured areas of the southern Kherson region. He said Russian forces fired 32 shots into the city of Kherson on Monday.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)