Volodymyr Zelensky pledged to clip the wings of Russia’s air power after revealing that Moscow has launched more than 30 “kamikaze” drone attacks on Ukraine in the past two days.
Since February, Moscow has carried out nearly 4,500 missile strikes and over 8,000 air raids, the president said in his nighttime address.
Standing next to what appeared to be a downed Iranian Shahed drone, Mr Zelensky pledged to “clip the wings” of Moscow’s air power.
Officials in the US and UK believe Iran has supplied a large number of drones to Russia, but Moscow and Tehran deny it.
Kyiv has identified the drones used in some attacks on its infrastructure as Iranian Shahed-136 drones.
They are known as kamikaze drones because they are destroyed in the attack. US secretary of state Antony Blinken called Russia’s aggressive use of drones “appalling”.
Western allies on the UN Security Council have insisted that secretary-general António Guterres has the right to investigate if Russia has used Iranian drones to attack civilians and power plants in Ukraine.
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has called for Ukraine to bring any evidence supporting their accusations forward, adding that the claims were “baseless”.
On Friday morning the UK Ministry of Defence said Russia was augmenting some units with reservists as part of a “transition to a long-term, defensive posture on most areas of the front line in Ukraine”.
In its daily update, the MoD added: “This is likely due to a more realistic assessment that the severely undermanned, poorly trained force in Ukraine is currently only capable of defensive operations. Even if Russia succeeds in consolidating long-term defensive lines in Ukraine, its operational design will remain vulnerable.”
Fighting on the ground has slowed in recent days with the much-anticipated advance of Ukrainian troops toward Kherson slowed by poor weather. Russia says the evacuation of citizens from the annexed city has been completed.
“The work to organise residents leaving the left side of the Dnipro [river] to safe regions of Russia is completed,” Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, said on Telegram on Thursday night.
Kyiv has compared the evacuation to Soviet-like “deportations” of its people.
In a sign of Moscow suffering heavy losses, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said late Thursday that 23 of his fighters were killed in battles around Kherson this week with dozens more wounded.
“At the beginning of this week, one of the Chechen units was shelled in the Kherson region,” Mr Kadyrov, who has sent his militia to fight alongside the Kremlin’s forces, said on Telegram.
“Twenty-three soldiers were killed and 58 wounded.”
Meanwhile, US officials have said they will supply Ukraine with an additional $275 million (£237 million) of military aid, according to the Associated Press.
The assistance is expected to be used to restock ammunition for artillery systems, including the HIMARS launchers that Kyiv’s forces have used to great effect.
Russian troops are making slow progress in their attempts to seize Bakhmut. Taking the city would rupture Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk province.
For five months Russia has battered the city with rockets and a ground assault is expected in the coming weeks with Vladimir Putin keen for visible gains following weeks of clear setbacks in Ukraine.
The line of contact is now on the city’s outskirts.
Mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian military company, are reported to be leading the charge, according to the Associated Press.
Ukraine’s military is firing mortars and heavy artillery to repel the Russian forces who were less than three miles away by early Thursday, according to the Institute for the Study of War think tank.
