Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his generals to abandon the rules of war and step up attacks on civilian targets and nuclear energy sites, Ukrainian officials have warned.
“He (Putin) said there are no more rules now,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Financial Times on Thursday, speaking from an air raid shelter at a school in the capital, kyiv.
Ukrainian intelligence intercepted reports that Russia has now removed constraints governing previous airstrikes, as Moscow desperately seeks to regain an advantage after four and a half years of war.
Such attacks aim not only to destroy infrastructure, but also to “put pressure on people” and sow fear among civilians, Zelensky said.
With the front line now largely static and Russia unable to capture the eastern Donbass region, Putin is now carrying out “massive attacks, massive massacres”, the warlord added.
The order was issued by Putin in September, just as Russia began to intensify its airstrikes on kyiv, hitting schools, hospitals and data centers, among other civilian targets, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
Russia’s latest tactic is to step up attacks on Ukraine’s biggest cities, including kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odessa, to isolate them as a brutal winter approaches.
Moscow also intends to strike nuclear facilities and cut them off from the energy grid to try to force Ukraine to accept Russia’s demands in early 2027, according to kyiv officials.
Russian destabilization tactics include triggering a new flow of Ukrainian refugees to neighboring countries like Poland, where conflict fatigue and anti-immigrant sentiments are increasing, according to kyiv.
Zelensky was speaking from a shelter at a kyiv school that a Russian jet drone had just struck.
He said Russia had launched some 500 drones, half of which were jet-powered and harder to shoot down, in the last day alone.
Ukraine is desperately trying to strengthen its air defense, but lacks engines for drone interceptors, Zelensky said.
Ukraine’s president said American-made F-16 planes were very effective against new Russian jet drones, but added that about half of the planes had to be sent abroad for repair and maintenance.
kyiv wants to move F-16 maintenance work to Ukraine to allow fighter jets to return to the battlefield sooner, Zelensky said.
His comments come after months of Ukraine successfully targeting Russian infrastructure, including oil refineries, ports and industrial sites, triggering fuel shortages in the country and hurting the Russian economy.
But Zelensky criticized the United States and Europe for, in his words, not doing “enough” to exert economic and diplomatic influence over Moscow to end the war.
The Kremlin denies that its military deliberately targets civilian infrastructure, despite video evidence showing otherwise.
“Russian armed forces are not hitting schools or hospitals,” Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Despite this, the World Health Organization has documented more than 3,000 Russian attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities, while Ukraine’s Ministry of Education says more than 4,700 schools and universities have been hit since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Gn world
