Zelenskyy warns Russia planning ‘prolonged’ attack with Iranian Shahed drones

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Russia strikes targets in Ukraine on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day

Fox News’ Nate Foy reports the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war from Kyiv. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Kyiv has gained intelligence suggesting that Russia is planning a prolonged attack by using Iranian-supplied Shahed drones. 

In an overnight address Monday, Zelenskyy warned that in the two days since the world welcomed in 2023, Ukraine has stopped more than 80 drone strikes.

“We have information that Russia is planning a prolonged attack with Shaheds,” he said.

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike, which local authorities consider to be Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles Shahed-136, in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 17, 2022.
(Photo by Oleksii Chumachenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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Zelenskyy said that Russia is looking to exhaust “our people, our air defense, our energy sector” by constantly pummeling the country with air strikes – a strategy Moscow has been employing for months but which it has escalated as winter sets in. 

“Now is the time when everyone involved in the protection of the sky should be especially attentive,” he said addressing Ukrainian pilots and those in charge of air defense. 

“Our task is to give Ukraine every day successes,” he continued. “Each shot down drone, each shot down missile, each day with electricity for our people and minimal schedules of blackouts are exactly such victories.”

People look at the residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike. At least four people have been killed as a result of a drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine on the morning of October 17, 2022. 
(Photo by Oleksii Chumachenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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Moscow and Tehran, Iran, have repeatedly denied any drone partnership or the use of Iranian supplied drones in Ukraine despite evidence supplied by Kyiv and backed by Western defense officials. 

Zelenskyy urged his forces on the front lines, particularly those fighting in areas like Bakhmut – which has seen intense ground warfare for months – to continue to hold the line amid harsh winter conditions, which has likely slowed fighting in other areas like Kherson. 

“No matter how difficult it is now, we must endure it. For it to be easier at the end of this winter,” he said.

Parts of unmanned aerial vehicles Orlan-10, Granat-3, Shahed-136 and Eleron-3-SV, used by the Russia against Ukraine, are seen during a media briefing of the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine on Dec. 15, 2022, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine representatives held a media briefing about situation on the Russian-Ukrainian war and the security situation in Ukraine. 
(Photo by STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Ukrainian forces have continued to push the lines eastward in areas like Donetsk, and fighting has begun to intensify in the Donbas region where Russian backed forces have fought since 2014. 

Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi championed this week that Ukrainian forces have liberated 40% of the territory Russia occupied following its invasion.

Zaluahnyi also said that in the regions where Russian forces remain Moscow has lost roughly 28% of the land. 

Caitlin McFall is a Reporter at Fox News Digital covering Politics, U.S. and World news.