Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that his country’s forces shot down 45 Iranian-made Shahed 136 drones that were fired by Russia on the first night of 2023.
“I thank our Air Force – pilots and anti-aircraft gunners: 33 Shahed drones on their account,” Zelensky said in a video he posted on Sunday. “I thank the air defense of our Ground Forces for another 12 downed Iranian drones,” he said.
According to Zelensky, “Russian terrorists, as pathetic as they were, have entered this year. Our sense of unity, authenticity, life itself – all this contrasts so much with the fear that has reigned in Russia. They are afraid. It is felt. And they are right to be afraid. Because they will lose. Drones, missiles, and everything else will not help them. Because we are together. And they are perhaps together with fear,” he said.
But after Zelensky belittled the impact of the kamikaze Russian drones on his country, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov announced on Monday that Ukraine had purchased 1,577 drones, 928 of which have already been handed over to the defenders of Ukraine to fight the Russian invaders.
“As part of the project, the Ministry of Defense, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, and other bodies have already purchased 1,577 drones. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world donated for each of them through UNITED24,” Fedorov posted on Telegram.
United24 is a global initiative to support Ukraine launched on May 5, 2022 by the Ukrainian government after the Russian invasion. As of December 7, 2022, more than $237 million has been raised from 110 countries.
TASS reported on Monday that a Ukrainian drone attacked a power installation in the Klimovsky District, Population: 25,897, on Ukraine’s border with Russia, according to the Governor of the Bryansk Region, Alexander Bogomaz.
“A Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle attacked the Klimovsky District this morning,” the Governor posted on Telegram. “Nobody was injured. A power installation was damaged as a result of the delivered strike; there is no electricity in the community.”
TASS also reported that Russia’s Air defenses on Monday downed a Ukrainian drone approaching the Russian city of Voronezh, also near the border.
