Ukraine repels drone salvo and kills scores of Russian troops at Donetsk base

Ukraine said it shot down dozens of explosive drones fired by Moscow’s forces in their latest attack on the country’s energy infrastructure, as Russia acknowledged that scores of its soldiers were killed in a missile strike on a barracks in occupied Donetsk region.

Moscow’s defence ministry rarely confirms losses or gives details of specific attacks by Ukrainian forces, but on Monday it said 63 Russian soldiers had been killed when four US-made Himars rockets hit a barracks in the town of Makiivka.

An unnamed source in Donetsk told Russia’s Tass news agency that soldiers’ use of mobile phones helped Ukraine target them shortly after the start of the new year. Footage purportedly from the scene appeared to show the former college reduced to smouldering rubble.

Ukrainian sources claimed hundreds of Russian soldiers were killed or injured there, while several Russian military bloggers cited similar casualty figures and lambasted officers for housing a large number of troops beside a weapons store that also exploded.

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Separately, Kyiv’s military said it had used air defence systems, fighter jets and mobile gunner units to destroy all 39 Iranian-made “Shahed” drones fired by Russia overnight from Sunday to Monday, as well as one guided missile and two reconnaissance drones.

Russia has made increasing use of the relatively cheap, low-flying and hard-to-detect “kamikaze” drones, and launched waves of them at cities and power facilities across Ukraine on New Year’s Eve and in the early hours of 2023, killing three people outright and injuring more than 50 others – one of whom died in hospital on Monday.

“They are scared. You can feel it. And they are right to be scared. Because they will lose. Drones, missiles and everything else will not help them. Because we are together. And they are together only in fear,” said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“I am grateful to all our energy workers and utility workers for stable energy supply and for outages being kept to a minimum, considering all the circumstances. Wherever power lines and other energy facilities are damaged by shelling, repairs continue around the clock,” he added.

Ukrainian electricity provider Ukrenergo said the latest drone attack further damaged the already badly weakened national grid, but assured customers the situation was “fully under control” thanks in part to unseasonably mild weather across the country. Planned blackouts lasting several hours continued to facilitate repair work, however.

Ukraine has reportedly deployed low-tech “drone hunter” units – each comprising a truck-mounted searchlight and heavy machine gun – to shoot down the Shaheds and preserve stocks of expensive air defence rockets supplied by western states.

Kyiv has asked allies to provide more air defence weapons and long-range artillery systems such as Himars, which Ukraine has used to strike Russian command posts, arms and fuel depots and concentrations of troops far behind the frontline.

After a call with Mr Zelenskiy, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the “EU stands by you, for as long as it takes. We support your heroic struggle. A fight for freedom and against brutal aggression.

“We are supporting you through this winter with generators, light bulbs, shelters, school buses. And we continue our strong financial assistance. Soon we’ll start disbursing our €18 billion support package in monthly tranches,” she added.