Zelenskiy orders a sharp increase in daily drone strikes

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday evening that he wants the Ukrainian military to significantly step up its long-range drone attacks on Russia. The Ukrainian leader said the goal is to raise the current estimated rate of about 300 operations a day to at least 1,000 drones.

Zelenskiy announced the plan after Russia launched a wave of recent attacks on different parts of Ukraine, leaving people dead and wounded. In comments on his Telegram account, the Ukrainian leader also said the U.S. had briefed Kyiv on the talks held in Moscow.

What do the Moscow contacts and Washington channel show?

John Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow stood out as a rare high-level intelligence contact between the two sides at a time when peace talks have made no progress. The Kremlin confirmed that Ratcliffe met Russian intelligence officials, but said there was no meeting with the Russian president.

  • Kyiv said it had received information from the United States about the latest meetings in Moscow.
  • Moscow confirmed the contacts took place but said there was no meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Recent attacks and targets inside Russia

Where were the casualties in Ukraine?

Russian attacks over the past 24 hours were reported to have killed and wounded people in several Ukrainian regions. According to local officials, the picture was as follows:

  • Kyiv region: One person was killed and two others were injured in the early hours of Friday.
  • Sumy region: A drone strike killed a 61-year-old man and wounded seven people; four of the injured were taken to hospital.
  • Kherson: Air and artillery strikes overnight killed a 61-year-old man and wounded 11 people, including a child.
  • Kharkiv region: Bombardments killed a 26-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, and injured 13 people, including two children.

What target did Ukraine hit in Russia?

According to Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian military also struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Yaroslavl region, about 1,000 kilometers from the front line. The Ukrainian leader said attacks on military production sites and oil infrastructure deep inside Russia are putting pressure on Moscow’s fuel supplies and export revenue, and causing significant damage to the production of solid-fuel rocket engines.