This undated photograph released by the Ukrainian military’s Strategic Communications Directorate shows the wreckage of what Kyiv has described as an Iranian Shahed drone downed near Kupiansk, Ukraine.
Ukrainian military’s Strategic Communications Directorate via AP
Russia has unleashed a fresh wave of Iranian suicide drone attacks on Ukraine, suggesting a restock.
This follows a three-week hiatus in the attacks, and it was suspected that their drone supply was low.
It also appears that Russia has resolved issues that prevented the drones from working in cold weather.
Russia appears to have used deadly Iranian-made drones to strike Ukraine after a three-week hiatus, suggesting it has restocked its supply and resolved previous issues that stopped them from working in cold weather, reports say.
Ukrainian news agency UNIAN and the UK’s defense ministry said that the drones had not been used in Ukraine since November 17, the first day that it snowed in the country this year.
Reports suggested that Russia appeared to be running out of its supply of the deadly drones.
Yevgeny Silkin, a top Ukrainian military official, also recently said that Russia was having problems using the drones because they are made of plastic and other materials that are not resistant to frost.
However, Ukrainian Air Force Command spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat suggested on Wednesday that Russia had resolved the issue and had started using the drones again, as did Ukrainian Southern Command Spokesperson Natalia Humenyuk, according to a report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Russian and Ukrainian sources reported that Shahed-136 drones had been used in fresh attacks on Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Zhytomyr, and Zaporizhia Oblasts, the ISW report said.
Ukrainian authorities said that Kamikaze drone strikes on Odesa left the city without power on Saturday.
The UK defense ministry noted in its intelligence update on Friday that reports of the latest attacks were yet to be verified but that it was likely that Russia has now received a resupply of Shahed-131s and 136s.
Russia attacks Ukraine with drones
Reuters
The Institute for the Study of War said that Russian forces “have likely modified the drones to operate in colder weather conditions and will likely increase their use in Ukraine in the coming weeks” to strike civilian targets.
Iran is accused of sending weapons to Russia, including the Shahed-136, Shahed-129, Shahed-191, which were used in “hundreds” of attacks against Ukraine, Britain’s defense ministry said. The weapons are often referred to as kamikaze or suicide drones because they detonate upon impact.
While Iran long denied it had sent Russia any weapons, it admitted in November to sending “a small number of drones” but said this was prior to the war.
The United Nations is looking into accusations that Iran supplied Russia with drones, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week.
The UK said on Saturday that Iran had become one of Russia’s top military backers since it invaded Ukraine, and the US accused Russia of providing advanced military assistance to Iran, suggesting deepening defense ties.