Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Russia had ordered “around 2,000 Iranian drones” to support its bombing campaign in Ukraine, which primarily targets power infrastructure.
“According to our intelligence services, Russia has ordered some 2,000 Iranian Shahed,” kamikaze ‘drones’ (unmanned aerial vehicles) to support its invasion of Ukraine, following several military setbacks on the ground since early September, Zelensky said, in a statement. conference. organized by the Israeli daily Haaretz.
The Ukrainian head of state did not specify whether that figure refers to a new order or the total number of Iranian drones bought by Moscow from Tehran, some of which have already been used to attack energy infrastructure in particular, according to kyiv.
According to Zelensky, “Iranian instructors came to teach the Russians how to use these ‘drones'” before sending them to Ukraine, he added.
The head of the Mykolaiv regional military administration, Vitaliy Kim, stated on television today that Russian troops used Iranian-made “Shahed-136” kamikaze drones for the first time on the front line in southern Ukraine, and not only against civil infrastructure.
“Today there were two ‘Shahed’ drone attacks on Shevchenkove village – this is the first use on the front line, and not in terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure by the Russians,” he stressed.
“Apparently, they decided that they were not going to get anywhere and started using them on the front line,” Kim said, in statements collected by the Unian agency.
However, the head of the Main Information Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Kyrylo Budanov, said that some Russian missile reserves are almost exhausted, but “terrorism with the use of ‘Shaheds’ can last for a long time.”
In an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper, the official indicated that the ‘drones’ of all kinds that Russia ordered have yet to be manufactured, specifying that each batch has about 300 units and that the Russians are currently using the second batch.
He added that, as of October 22, Russian forces had used about 330 “Shahed”, of which 222, about 70%, were shot down by Ukrainian forces.
However, “others, in one way or another, reached their targets” or fell in a nearby place, “but about 30% of the ‘drones’ reached their targets,” he stressed.
As for Russian missile reserves, he said that in the case of the Iskander, about 13% remain; for Kalibr-PL and Kalibr-NK, about 43%; and on J-101 and J-555, about 45%.
“It is very dangerous to stay below 30%”, which is already considered an emergency reserve, said the head of the Ukrainian secret services.
The situation with the Iskanders has been critical for some time, while with regard to the Kalibr and J-101s and J-555s, the Russians “are still trying to stay somewhat within their norms,” he added.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people -more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.7 million to European countries-, according to the latest data from the UN, which places this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the international community in general, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political sanctions on Russia. and economic. .
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 6,374 civilian deaths and 9,776 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
