Zelenskyy, standing in the dark, says ‘shelling will not break us’

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday stood outside in the dark beside the wreckage of a downed drone and vowed that widespread Russian attacks on power plants would not break Ukrainian spirits.

Abandoning his usual indoor setting, Zelenskyy said in his daily video address that Kyiv had shot down 23 drones in the last two days.

Russia has aimed dozens of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles at Ukraine’s electricity generating network in the last two weeks, causing major damage and triggering blackouts.

“Shelling will not break us – to hear the enemy’s anthem on our land is scarier than the enemy’s rockets in our sky. We are not afraid of the dark,” he said.

Kyiv and four regions may have to cut electricity supplies for longer than planned after Russian strikes, a senior official said earlier on Thursday.

Zelenskyy said that Russia had so far launched more than 8 000 air strikes and fired 4 500 missiles.