Russia received 250 Shahed-136 kamikaze drones from Iran, which it masks during attacks on Ukraine under the Russian drones "Geran-2". This was stated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in his address to the participants of the meeting of the leaders of the United Kingdom's Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), the entry was published on the YouTube channel of Zelensky's Office.
The President recalled that on the night of December 19, Ukraine was again attacked by "Shaheds". According to him, these were UAVs from a new batch, in total Russia received 250 units from Iran. He also added that Russian missiles and Iranian drones are used to attack the energy system. The recent massive strike on Ukraine affected more than 20 million Ukrainians, Zelensky stressed.
“Million-plus cities and most Ukrainian regions were left without electricity. In total, on the evening of December 16, 22 million 408 thousand Ukrainians were disconnected from the power supply. More than 10 million people have lost their water and heat supplies. Imagine the scale of this terror. And imagine that it can be stopped.”
According to the president, now it largely depends on the leaders of other countries when and how the war will end. He urged countries to supply Kyiv with weapons and air defense in order to protect the Ukrainian sky and deprive Russia of the opportunity to "terrorize Ukraine."
Zelensky said that Russian aggression must fail, the task of countries is to accelerate this. During the meeting, he also addressed British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, saying he was grateful for the words of support and the country's priorities.
“First of all, I want to thank you all for supporting Ukraine in the fight for freedom. When I participated in a meeting in this format last time (on the 12th day of a full-scale invasion), I called on you to help Ukraine, and therefore yourself. That is how we have been acting all these months. And I thank you all for that, for your great support!”
On the night of December 19, about 15 of the 20 drones launched by Russia in Kiev were shot down , the head of the city military administration of the Ukrainian capital, Sergei Popko, reported. The city is experiencing emergency blackouts.