Ukraine cites success in downing drones, fixes energy sites

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities tried to dampen public fears over Russia’s use of Iranian drones by claiming increasing success Monday in shooting them down, while the Kremlin’s talk of a possible “dirty bomb” attack added another worrying dimension as the war enters its ninth month.

Ukrainians are bracing for less electric power this winter following a sustained Russian barrage on their infrastructure in recent weeks. Citizens in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv lined up for water and essential supplies on Monday as Ukrainian forces advanced on the nearby Russian-occupied city of Kherson.

Ukraine’s forces have shot down more than two-thirds of the approximately 330 Shahed drones that Russia has fired through Saturday, the head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, said Monday. Budanov said Russia’s military had ordered about 1,700 drones of different types and is rolling out a second batch of about 300 Shaheds.

“Terror with the use of ‘Shaheds’ can actually last for a long time,” he was quoted as saying in the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper, adding: “Air defense is basically coping, 70% are shot down.”

Both Russia and Iran deny that Iranian-built drones have been used, but the triangle-shaped Shahed-136s have rained down on civilians in Kyiv and elsewhere.

“First of all, we have to be able to counter the drones,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday at a press conference in Zagreb with Croatia’s leader. “It is a dangerous technology, and it must be stopped.”

Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russia was likely to use a large number of drones to try to penetrate the “increasingly effective Ukrainian air defenses” — to substitute for Russian-made long-range precision weapons “which are becoming increasingly scarce.”

That assessment came on top of a stark warning by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to his British, French, Turkish and U.S. counterparts over the weekend that Ukrainian forces were preparing a “provocation” involving a radioactive device — a so-called dirty bomb. Britain, France and the United States rejected that claim as “transparently false.”

A dirty bomb uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste in an effort to sow terror. Such weapons don’t have the devastating destruction of a nuclear explosion, but could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.

Russian authorities on Monday doubled down on Shoigu’s warning.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian military’s radiation, chemical and biological protection forces, said Russian military assets were on high readiness for possible radioactive contamination. He told reporters a dirty bomb blast could contaminate thousands of square miles.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday: “It’s not an unfounded suspicion, we have serious reasons to believe that such things could be planned.”

Ukraine has rejected Moscow’s claims as an attempt to distract attention from its own plans to detonate a dirty bomb. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht on Monday dismissed as “outrageous” the Russian claim that Ukraine could use a dirty bomb.

The White House on Monday again underscored that the Russian allegations were false.

“It’s just not true. We know it’s not true,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said. “In the past, the Russians have, on occasion, blamed others for things that they were planning to do.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that Moscow itself was setting the stage for deploying a radioactive device on Ukrainian soil.

A poll released Monday from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed 86% of Ukrainian respondents agreed that Ukraine’s armed struggle with Russia should continue. Some 10% believed it was necessary to start negotiations with Russia even if Ukraine has to make concessions. The telephone poll of 1,000 adults from across Ukraine was conducted Friday through Sunday, it said.

Residents in Mykolaiv, northwest of Kherson, echoed the determination to fight on — even as their city endures shelling almost every night and residents must line up during the day for food and water.

“Ukraine is doing the right thing. Russians attacked us, and they must be beaten for that,” said Mykolaiv resident Mykola Kovalenko, 76.

With an eye on the coming winter, Kyiv and seven other Ukrainian regions on Monday planned rolling blackouts as authorities worked to fix the damage to energy facilities caused by targeted Russian shelling. Zelenskyy appealed to local authorities to make sure Ukrainians heed a call to conserve energy.

“Now is definitely not the time for bright storefronts and signs,” he said.