President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s war against Ukraine is changing, with the fight for the skies becoming its key direction. He said this in an interview with the Financial Times.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukrainian forces have managed to halt the war on the battlefield, and the front line is now barely moving. At the same time, Russia is unable to operate at sea as it had planned, leaving airspace as the decisive domain.
“This war is changing. Today, peace and victory belong to the one who is smarter. It is very difficult for us, but our soldiers have stopped the war on the battlefield — the contact line — with their lives. The war continues, but the front is no longer moving. When the front is barely moving and the enemy cannot enter at sea, the sky remains,” the president said.
Zelenskyy stressed that the fight is now for the sky. According to him, this marks a shift in the war’s priorities, and Ukraine has already become a competitor in this field.
At the same time, the president named the lack of anti-ballistic capabilities as the main problem. He noted that Ukraine had no such programs and did not inherit such capabilities from the Soviet Union, as they remained in Moscow.
“We did not have nuclear weapons, without which you are not in this club. You are in the club of those who can be attacked,” Zelenskyy said.
The president is convinced that the smarter side will win the fight for the sky. According to him, if partners do not leave Ukraine without financial support and Ukrainian troops hold the battlefield, the country will be able to continue fighting for air superiority.
“The sky will be decisive in this war. The one who is smarter is stronger, and that one will win,” he said.
Zelenskyy also spoke separately about Ukraine’s Crimea operation. According to him, it involves deep strikes and middle strikes aimed at slowing the militarization of the Russian-occupied peninsula.
The president said Ukraine targeted military bases, depots, air defense systems, sites from which aircraft take off, and logistics. According to him, Ukrainian forces cut off logistics and took control of the fuel and energy complex.
“We showed what it means to operationally control the sky at a specific point, at a specific time,” Zelenskyy said.
He added that Ukraine moved to operations in Crimea after strikes on Novorossiysk and other retaliatory attacks on Russia’s energy and port infrastructure. According to the president, this is where Russia earns money from energy and then spends it on military bases and military production.
Zelenskyy said Russian business is beginning to understand that Russia will not win the war. According to him, Russians are losing time, money and hope of capturing Ukraine.
The president also emphasized the importance of long-range strikes on Russian territory. According to him, as long as Ukrainian strikes did not reach Moscow and St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin did not think much about the war and saw it as something far from the Kremlin.
“When our deep strikes were not reaching Moscow and St. Petersburg, Putin did not think much about it. He understood that the war was far from the Kremlin,” Zelenskyy said.
The president said strikes on Moscow, as well as on the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, force Putin to feel the reality of the war.
“When not a hundred drones, but a thousand, start reaching Moscow, and when he feels and sees it, he will be advised to move somewhere beyond the Urals. That will be a moment like a new page on the path to ending the war,” Zelenskyy said.
According to him, the farther Putin is from Moscow, the closer the end of the war and peace will be. Zelenskyy added that the Russian dictator fears for his life, as do Russian elites.
The president stressed that Moscow and St. Petersburg are the key cities where Russian elites live and where decisions to kill Ukrainians are made.
Zelenskyy emphasized that long-range strikes already have a major impact, but this area requires constant work.
“The heroes are those on the front line. And all of us — the entire state — must carry the shells. If this is the case, we will bring a just and strong peace for Ukraine. This is victory for us,” the president said.
