In the early hours of 19 December, Russia attacked Ukraine with 34 Shahed kamikaze drones from a new batch of 250 drones supplied by Iran, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an online address to the leaders of the United Kingdom's Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).
"Last night Ukraine was again attacked by Iranian drones. Thirty-four Shaheds. I am talking about the number and the name, and quite specifically. These are the Shaheds from a new batch that Russia received from Iran. Two hundred and fifty pieces - this is the total number of Shaheds received by the terrorist state," the president said.
He added that Russian missiles and Iranian drones are constantly used to strike primarily the Ukrainian energy sector. Only one recent massive strike on Ukraine has affected more than 20 million Ukrainians, cities with more than 1 million residents and the majority of Ukrainian regions were left without electricity.
"As of the evening of 16 December, 22.408 million Ukrainians were cut off from power supply. Water and heat supply was disrupted for more than 10 million people," Zelenskyy said.