Russia launches more than 80 Iranian drones at Ukraine to start 2023
Mike Brest
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The Russian military launched more than 80 Iranian-made Shahed drones at Ukrainian targets since the new year commenced, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday, and he warned that this could be a “prolonged attack.”
Russian forces began using the Iranian drones back in October in a change of strategy, instead opting to use the “kamikaze” drones to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of the winter, and their continued efforts have often left millions of civilians without electricity, heat, or running water. Ukrainian officials, and their partners in the West, have scrambled to repair the damage to various hubs, though their electrical grid is facing significant strain. A recent warm front has alleviated some of that burden temporarily.
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“Only two days have passed since the beginning of the year, and the number of Iranian drones shot down over Ukraine is already more than 80. This number may increase in the near future. Because these weeks, the nights can be quite restless,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address. “We have information that Russia is planning a prolonged attack with Shaheds. Its bet may be on exhaustion, on exhaustion of our people, our air defense, our energy sector.”
Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said on Monday that the Ukrainian military had liberated roughly 40% of the land occupied during the war, and 28% of all territories Russia occupied since 2014.
Over the weekend, a Ukrainian strike in the eastern Donetsk region killed at least dozens of Russian armed forces. The Ukrainian military said at least 400 Russian soldiers were killed and another 300 wounded, while the Russian Defense Ministry said that number was around 60. The Russian Defense Ministry alleged that the strike was carried out using a U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS.
Moscow’s acknowledgment of the attack has “generated criticism towards the Russian military command,” the Institute for the Study of War think tank said in its nightly update, adding that Russian military bloggers questioned why such a large group of Russian soldiers was stationed at one location, while some also accused Russia of lying about the attack and said the soldiers’ use of personal cellphones allowed for Ukrainian forces to locate them.
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Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian troops in east Ukraine, acknowledged the death toll was in the hundreds. Semyon Pegov, who blogs under the alias “WarGonzo” and received an award from Russian President Vladimir Putin just weeks ago, said, “Despite the official statement of the Ministry of Defense, the exact number of casualties is still unknown.”
“To the degree we can trust our own sources who work at the spot where this tragedy happened, they are still digging up the rubble at this moment,” he explained. “And unfortunately, the number of victims of this tragedy — the HIMARS strike on the quarters of both newly mobilized and the serving military, including National Guard — could be bigger.”