Russia is planning a protracted campaign of attacks with Iranian drones to “exhaust” Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his night address.

On national television in Ukraine, Yuriy Ignat, Spokesperson for the air force command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has claimed that nearly 500 Russian drones have been downed since September.

The Ukrainian strike on a Russian base in Makiivka, Donetsk, has generated “significant criticism of Russian military leadership”, according to a recent report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has said up to 10 units of Russian military equipment of various types in occupied Makiivka were damaged or destroyed. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, but its military reported the Makiivka attack as “a strike on Russian manpower and military equipment”.

Satellite images taken by US-based company Planet Labs that purportedly showing the aftermath of the strike on Makiivka have circulated online, showing the building that allegedly housed the Russian troops before and after it was hit. The images, dated 2 January, show a building almost completely razed to the ground.

Zelensky said he expects the first tranche of EU macro-financial aid to arrive in January after speaking to European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen. He thanked Von der Leyen for her support, adding the EUR 18bn worth of financial assistance “is extremely important right now”.