KYIV — Russia is preparing to step up its attacks on Ukraine using Iranian-made exploding drones, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as Moscow looks for ways to keep up the pressure on Kyiv after months of battlefield setbacks for the Kremlin’s war strategy, according to AP.
“We have information that Russia is planning a prolonged attack by Shaheds (exploding drones),” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address late Monday.
He said the goal is to break Ukraine’s resistance by “exhausting our people, (our) air defense, our energy,” more than 10 months after Russia attacked its neighbour.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is exploring how to shore up confidence in Moscow’s flawed war effort, which in recent months has been dented by a Ukrainian counteroffensive backed by Western-supplied weapons. That has brought criticism in some Russian circles of the military’s performance.
In the latest embarrassment for the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian soldiers were stationed, killing 63 of them. It was one of the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin’s forces since the war began more than 10 months ago.
