Zelenskyy announced the successful destruction of Russian targets in the Moscow region and Crimea
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has officially confirmed that strategic targets within the Russian Federation and in occupied Crimea were struck as a result of a large-scale attack by Ukrainian drones.
In his evening video address on May 17, the head of state noted the high effectiveness of the joint actions of the Ukrainian military and special services, which managed to overcome the enemy’s most dense defenses.
According to the country’s leader, these successful long-range strikes demonstrate the new technological capabilities of Ukraine’s defense sector on the international stage.
The defense forces demonstrated their ability to effectively destroy the enemy’s military and logistical infrastructure at a great distance from the front line.
This latest operation sent a powerful signal to the military and political leadership of the aggressor country regarding the vulnerability of their rear facilities.
The President emphasized the high level of coordination among various agencies during the planning and execution of this airstrike.
“Today, the Ukrainian Defense Forces, our Security Service of Ukraine, and our intelligence carried out a large-scale operation in the Moscow region. A strong wave of our precision strikes—we are providing Ukraine with this capability,” Zelenskyy noted.
According to the head of state, this latest wave of Ukrainian “deep strikes” proved to be exceptionally significant, as targets were struck in the capital region, which the Kremlin defends most vigorously.
This success significantly undermines the myth of the absolute invulnerability of Russia’s central regions to external threats. The Russian air defense system proved incapable of fully intercepting a massive group of Ukrainian weapons.
“The distance to the targets this time was more than 500 kilometers, which is significant also because the Moscow region is the most heavily saturated with Russian air defense systems. They protect their area of influence the most. But Ukrainian long-range strikes are already overcoming this,” the president said.
The Ukrainian leader advised the occupiers to focus on protecting their own critical infrastructure, which is increasingly becoming a target for precision strikes.
Zelenskyy urged the Kremlin to think about its own oil refineries and oil facilities, “rather than how to disrupt the lives of other nations—in Ukraine, Moldova, or any other neighboring country.”
He also confirmed that the Defense Forces had carried out operations over the past 24 hours against targets in the temporarily occupied territory, particularly in Crimea.
The new strategy of using long-range weapons is forcing the global community and international partners to rethink the current course of the armed conflict.
The Ukrainian army’s successes are shifting the balance of power and demonstrating that aggression will not go unpunished for Russia itself. At the end of his speech, the head of state emphasized the inevitability and logic of this turn of events.
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