Since the start of 2024, Russian invasion forces have attacked Ukraine with over 6,000 Shahed kamikaze drones.
President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced the statistic during a video address to the nation on Sunday, Ukrinform reports.
The head of state praised the defenders of the Ukrainian sky, who shoot down enemy drones.
As he stated, this year, nearly every night, sometimes in the mornings and during the day, Ukraine faces the threat of Shahed drones.
Zelensky recalled that these one-way attack drones were given to Russia by Iran, becoming “one of the main tools of Russian terror” against Ukraine. The Russians and Iranians continue improving these UAVs, the president admitted.
“We have always told our partners that it is necessary to be more decisive in countering such criminal alliances. Just this week, from Monday until today, there have been Shaheds every day. On October 18 alone, there were 129 of these drones. And since the beginning of the year, Russia has already used over 6,130 Shaheds,” the president noted.
He added that the Ukrainian defenders shoot down a significant part of these deadly UAVs, and part of them is being tackled by electronic warfare systems. At the same time, this does not resolve the problem in full.
“That’s why there needs to be more pressure on Russia’s ability to already produce these weapons. We need the capability to destroy not only the storage bases for the Shaheds but also the entire infrastructure for their production and logistics. Unfortunately, terrorists know how to take advantage of the time that the free world’s indecision gives them,” Zelensky noted.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, air defense forces shot down over 30 kamikaze drones that the Russians launched at Ukraine since Saturday night, and another 13 drones were likely disabled by e-warfare systems as they disappeared from radars.
Photo: Getty Images
Source: Russia launches over 6K Shahed drones at Ukraine since year-start - Zelensky
