Standing next to what appears to be a huge drowned Iranian Shahed drone, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that Russia has shockingly launched more than 30 drone attacks on his country in just two days.
The Ukrainian leader went on to add that in total, Moscow has carried out some 4,500 missile strikes and over 8,000 air raids on Ukraine.
Pictured in Kyiv, the president stood next to a fallen Shahed-136 drone, which has reportedly been sent to Russia to by Iran be used against Ukrainian positions.
Speaking from the Ukrainian capital city, Zelensky went on to pledge to "clip the wings" of Moscow's air power following a series of attacks on his land.
He added: “Enemy planes will fall. Enemy helicopters will fall. ‘Shaheds’ will fall.”
Western officials believe that Iran has supplied a number of drones to Russia - but Moscow and Tehran have continued to deny these claims.
The Shahed-136 drones have become a key weapon in Russia's arsenal during the war, and have been employed more frequently recently; to destroy critical infrastructure, leaving millions of Ukrainians with limited power supplies and with low water supplies just as temperatures are beginning to drop.
The president's comments come after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Russia's aggressive use of drones "appalling".
Blinken, a top US diplomat, has accused Vladimir Putin' s war commanders of using the devices to "kill Ukrainian civilians" and completely destroy the infrastructure they rely on.
At a joint press availaibility with Canadian Foreign Minister, Mélanie Joly, Secretary Blinken said in full: "The Iranian regime has also provided the Kremlin with drones and assisted Russia in their use –drones that are being used to kill Ukrainian civilians and destroy the infrastructure they rely on for electricity, for water, for heat.
"It’s appalling, and Canada and the United States will keep working with our allies and partners to expose, to deter, and to counter Iran’s provision of these weapons."
Western countries have claimed that Iran is supplying its domestically developed drones to Moscow, with assertions that Iranian military experts are on the ground in Russian-occupied Crimea to provide technical support to pilots.
However, Tehran has repeatedly denied that it has struck any arms deal with the Kremlin.
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Wednesday has called the accusations "baseless" and urged Ukraine to "present any evidence supporting the accusations".
Amir-Abdollahian added: "If... it becomes clear to us that Russia has used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will definitely not be indifferent about this issue."
The kamikaze Shahed-136 drones are said to have a range of around 2,500 kilometres and can carry warheads weighing between five to thirty kilograms.
The a small aerial target flies mainly at low altitudes, and because it has a maximum speed of 185 kilometre per hour, it is seldom detectable on radars.
And as reported by EurAsian Times, the Shahed-136 kamikaze drones have become a significant challenge for the Ukrainian Armed Forces as the Russian military have successfully conducted swarm attacks using these particular drones.
They are known as "kamikaze" drones because they are destroyed in the attack - named after the Japanese fighter pilots who flew suicide missions in World War Two.
