Russia has received 250 new Shahed-136 drones from Iran, which it uses to attack Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 19 during a Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) summit of Northern Europe leaders in Latvia.
Russian forces launched 35 Iranian kamikaze drones at Ukraine on Dec. 19, injuring three people. Thirty drones were reportedly shot down.
According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the attack damaged infrastructure in Kyiv.
Zelensky said in October that Russia had ordered over 2,400 Iranian-made attack drones. In December, the EU and Canada imposed sanctions against Iran for supplying Russia with drones.
Russia has repeatedly attacked critical infrastructure across Ukraine with missiles and drones since early October, killing dozens of people and causing power outages.
According to Zelensky, the last mass attack on the country’s critical infrastructure on Dec. 16 affected over 20 million people, leaving them without power.
“Imagine the scale of this terror. And imagine that it can be stopped,” he told the JEF members.
Moscow has admitted that Ukraine’s energy system is one of its primary targets. According to the Geneva Conventions, attacking vital public infrastructure constitutes a war crime.
