World ‘has all it needs’ to stop Russia using Iranian drones, says Zelensky

Israel shot down the same Shahed weapons during Iran’s weekend reprisal attack

Volodymyr Zelensky has said “the world has everything it needs” to stop Russia using Iranian drones against Ukraine after dozens were expertly downed over Israel at the weekend.

Moscow has been using cheap “kamikaze” drones to attack Ukraine’s power network, grain storehouses and other targets in its towns and cities.

Fitted with warheads of up to 50kg and with a range of up to 2,000km, they have become a mainstay of Moscow’s arsenal. On Saturday, they comprised the bulk of Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel, with dozens fired by the Islamic republic.

Also on Saturday, Russia deployed the drones in a strike on Kharkiv in an attack that killed six people and wounded at least 10 others, emergency services said.

Speaking after the attacks, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was in desperate need of help to repel these attacks.

“The world has everything it needs to stop any missiles, Shahed drones and other means of terror. The world needs only solutions that can bring back real, reliable security,” he said.

Mr Zelensky has previously complained that the war in Israel has detracted from his own fight, and of waning western support in general.

“Ukraine can stop Russian terror, can protect life, the life of all of Europe and other regions around the world from the spread of evil. It is for this that we need the support of our partners, and every day of delay in aid is another destroyed house and destroyed lives,” he said.

Russia began using the easy-to-build Shahed drones to attack Ukrainian cities towards the end of 2022 and conserve its more valuable missiles.

They have become easily identifiable by the noise they make in-flight, with comparisons drawn to mopeds and lawnmowers.

Yesterday, Ukrainian officials said that 10 Shahed drones attacked Kharkiv overnight but that the city’s air defence systems had shot them all down.

Kharkiv, which lies around 260km from the frontline, has become a priority target for the Russian army in the past few months as it takes the initiative across battlefields.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top commander, has said that the situation for Ukraine’s soldiers had “significantly deteriorated” because they are heavily outgunned.

Yesterday, he said the Kremlin wants to capture the town of Chasiv Yar by May 9, Russia’s Victory Day.

“Measures were taken to significantly strengthen the brigades (defending Chasiv Yar) with ammunition, drones, and electronic warfare equipment,” he wrote on Facebook after a trip to the frontline.

Chasiv Yar lies roughly 15km west of Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured last year. It is considered strategically important because control of the town will give the Russian army a launchpad for attacks on four Ukrainian “fortress cities” behind it.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian officials said that Ukrainian shelling of the occupied town of Tokmak on Saturday had killed 16 civilians.

Separately, Ukrainian officials said that they had hit a “command centre” for a Russian army group in Luhansk, a town in Ukraine’s Donbas region that Russia has controlled since 2014.

“The Ukrainian pilots did an excellent job and returned to base,” said General Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force.

“There will be more such attacks on enemy rear lines when Ukraine receives more missiles from our western partners.”

Russia has not confirmed the strike but the War Observer Russian military blog on Telegram said Storm Shadow missiles had hit Luhansk next to videos of a massive explosion in the city.

Storm Shadow missiles are British-French air-to-ground cruise missiles fired by the Ukrainian military at priority targets. (© Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2024)

“Ukraine can stop Russian terror, can protect life, the life of all of Europe and other regions from the spread of evil”