Russian strategic shift: Hundreds of drones, mostly Shaheds originally designed by Iranians, are terrorizing Ukrainian cities in swarms – now even far from the front lines. And Moscow is also going on the offensive elsewhere.
Russia recently attacked Ukraine in one week with almost as many drones as it initially sent each year. In the past week alone, Russia launched 1,800 drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, apparently referring to Shahed drones originally designed by Iran.
According to the portal"Airwars," which attempts to verify and quantify Russia's attacks on its neighbor, there were a total of almost 2,000 attacks with this weapon in the first year after the advent of the Shaheds. The approximately three-meter-long flying objects, often called"mopeds" by Ukrainians because of their characteristic loud humming during approach, were originally delivered by Tehran starting in late summer 2022. Moscow now also produces the drones itself.
Zelensky accused the Russian military of increasingly terrorizing the civilian population. Indeed, cities far from the front lines, which had previously been largely spared, have recently been targeted by Russian airstrikes, including Lutsk and Chernivtsi, far in the west and south of the country. According to Zelensky, in addition to the drones, which often attack in swarms, more than 1,200 glide bombs were dropped on Ukraine in the last week. In addition, there were 83 rockets of various types."The Russians are increasing the terror against cities and towns in order to intimidate our people even further."
At the same time, Zelensky praised the work of Russia's air defense system. Specifically, the interceptor drones they developed had already shot down hundreds of Shahed drones within a week. He recently held several meetings with Western partners to expand production of this defense weapon, Zelensky wrote.
Meanwhile, Russian troops have intensified their efforts to capture the islands in the Dnipro River delta south of the port city of Kherson. The number of daily attacks has increased from two to three to six to ten, Vladislav Voloshin, spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces responsible for this sector, told state television."The enemy wants to use these attacks to establish certain bridgeheads in the region," Voloshin explained.
The Russian attacks have so far been repelled. The Ukrainian statements could not initially be independently verified.
According to Ukrainian military officials, whoever controls the Dnipro Islands has a significant tactical advantage. Should Russian units succeed in controlling the islands, an advance to the mainland in the far south of the Ukrainian defense lines cannot be ruled out. This would also block all shipping in the region.
Russians claim to have conquered a place called Karl Marx
Meanwhile, in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk Oblast, Russian troops claim to have captured the settlement of Karl Marx. This almost completes the conquest of the Donetsk region claimed by Russia, the Russian state agency TASS reported, citing military sources. Only two settlements remain under the control of Ukrainian units. There was no confirmation from Kyiv.
In the former territories of the Soviet Union, many place names refer to the then-ruling Communist Party and its leading politicians. For example, there are numerous settlements named after Karl Marx or the founder of the state, Lenin. The region around the city of St. Petersburg, which has a population of one million and was renamed from Leningrad to St. Petersburg in 1991, is still called Leningrad Oblast today.
However, the naming can also go the other way: In the Donetsk Oblast, for example, there is a place called Nyu-York – modeled after the American Big Apple.
