Ukraine Russia news – live: Zelensky says 37 Iranian drones shot down during Kyiv attack

Russia has likely gained greater want to attack civilian infrastructure after severe battlefield setbacks, the British defence ministry said today.

“As Russia has suffered battlefield setbacks since August, it has highly likely gained a greater willingness to strike civilian infrastructure in addition to Ukrainian military targets,” the British MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

It noted that since 10 October, Russia has maintained a heightened tempo of long-range strikes against targets across Ukraine.

“These have been conducted by cruise missiles, air defence missiles in a surface-to-surface role, and Iranian-provided Shahed-136 one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles,” the ministry said.

It is highly likely that a key objective of this strike campaign is to cause wide-spread damage to Ukraine’s energy distribution network, the MoD pointed out.

The Pentagon is contemplating financing the Elon Musk-owned Starlink satellite network in war-hit Ukraine, two US officials involved in the discussions said, according to a report by Politico.

The crucial satellite network aiding Ukrainian troops in the battlefields in the absence of cellular network services damaged in the war will most likely be funded by the US department of defence Ukraine security assistance initiative built to help Kyiv in Russia-led invasion.

This comes as the SpaceX CEO said the engineering firm cannot indefinitely fund Starlink in Ukraine, but quickly backtracked over the weekend to claim the rocket company would continue to spend money for the service in the war-torn country.

Additionally, the European Union is also weighing funding Starlink in Ukraine, reported The Financial Times, citing three officials with knowledge of the decision.

Read more about the world’s richest person’s initiative in Ukraine:

Russia has unleashed successive waves of the Iranian-made Shahed drones over Ukraine in its renewed bid to penetrate the Ukraine skies.

Known as the ‘poor man’s cruise missile’, the multiple attacks by Russia with the help of this drone killed nearly two dozen and injured several.

‘Kamikaze drones’ unleashed by Moscow has multiple goals — it takes out key targets, crushes morale, and ultimately drains the enemy’s war chest and weapons as they try to take them out.

Read more about this Iranian suicide drones here:

Volodymyr Zelensky once again called on Ukrainians to help replenish the besieged country’s so-called “exchange fund” of captured troops.

“…I also thank all those who replenish our exchange fund, who ensure the capture of enemies,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

“The more Russian prisoners we have, the sooner we will be able to free our heroes. Every Ukrainian warrior, every frontline commander should remember this,” he said.

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine had secured the release of a new tranche of captured Ukrainians from Russian captivity on Monday.

“We managed to return 108 Ukrainian women,” he said, saying that 96 of them served in the armed forces as “officers, sergeants, privates. army, navy, territorial defence, national guard, border guards”. “37 of them are evacuees from Azovstal,” he added, while 12 were civilians.

“Among those released today are those who were captured long before the full-scale war. We do not forget about any of our people – we have to return them all. And we will return them all,” Mr Zelensky said.

The death toll from the Russian fighter plane crash in Russia’s southern city of Yeysk has soared to 13, officials said.

Another 19 people have been injured after the fighter jet hit and crashed into a residential building, immediately setting the premises on fire, local officials said.

Visuals of the crash showed explosions aboard the Sukhoi Su-34 supersonic medium-range fighter-bomber as it dived towards the apartments.

The crash hit large parts of the nine-storey building, causing explosions and fire on Monday night.

Officials said later that the fire had been put out.

The jet crashed during a training flight from a military airfield, reported Russian news agency RIA.

Russia has not notified the US about whether it is carrying out drills of its nuclear forces, amid speculation that the Kremlin is bracing for such exercises soon, a senior US military official said on Monday.

The official told Reuters: “No, we have not received any type of official notification,” on being asked if Washington has been served notice of the anticipated nuclear drills.

The New START Treaty states that both the US and Russia will provide advance notification of any nuclear tests, US officials say, but this is yet to come.

Officials in the United States say Russia will likely carry out test launches of missiles during its annual “Grom” exercises of its strategic nuclear forces, and could also be expected in days.

Volodymyr Zelensky says his forces intercepted and shot down nearly 40 Iranian suicide drones and several cruise missiles in just 12 hours during Monday’s early morning attack on central Kyiv.

“In just 12 hours from 9pm Sunday, 37 Iranian ‘Shaheds’ and several cruise missiles were destroyed,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

These drones are said by Kyiv to have been used in Russian attacks which killed 19 people last week, before a widespread and fatal assault on the Ukrainian capital and other cities on Monday sparked international condemnation.

“The world can and must stop this terror. When we talk about Ukraine’s need for air and missile defence, we are talking about real lives that are being taken by terrorists,” said the wartime president, calling for more military aid and air defence systems.

He added: “But in order to guarantee the protection of our skies and to reduce the capabilities of Russian terrorists to zero, we need significantly more modern air defence systems and a greater missile provision for such systems.”

Volodymyr Zelensky directly targeted Vladimir Putin in his nightly address on Monday and said that his Russian counterpart is responsible for the death of a pregnant woman in the suicide drone strikes on Kyiv earlier in the day.

“In Kyiv, they killed a young family, targeting an apartment building with an Iranian ‘Shahed’. A guy and a 6 months pregnant girl… Vladimir Putin can mark another ‘achievement’ – he killed another pregnant woman,” Mr Zelensky said.

He added that the Ukrainian services continued to clear places where the “Russian terrorists managed to hit”.

“In total, four people were killed by this ‘Shahed’ alone. There were other hits. More than 25 settlements of our country were attacked this night and morning,” Mr Zelensky said.