KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia is moving a significant part of its air defenses to protect a handful of prime targets, including Moscow, as Ukraine’s long-range drones hammered sites deep inside the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
In new overnight strikes, Zelenskyy said Thursday that Kyiv’s forces hit two more Russian oil refineries in Ufa, 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from the front line, and an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, 300 kilometers (180 miles) from Ukraine.
In recent months, Ukraine has stepped up its aerial campaign against Russian military installations and energy facilities. Its success has caused fuel shortages and disrupted army supply lines, stalling Moscow´s full-scale invasion after more than four years of fighting.
Zelenskyy said in his daily address late Wednesday that Russia is moving more air defenses to the capital as well as to Valdai, a town some 500 kilometers (300 miles) northwest of Moscow and the site of a residence for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said they are also protecting the Kerch Bridge, a vital supply route connecting the Crimean Peninsula with the Russian mainland.
“In the Moscow region alone, they have amassed hundreds of launchers” for air defense missiles, Zelenskyy said. “Nearly 90 launchers have been redeployed to Valdai from other regions of Russia.”
It was not possible to independently verify Zelenskyy’s claims, which portrayed the Russian leadership as caring more about protecting itself than other cities and towns in the vast country. Russian officials made no immediate comment.
Ukrainian drones this month have hit Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city and Putin´s hometown. Ukraine is also trying to cut off Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014.
The air defense changes, Zelenskyy suggested, would leave other parts of Russia vulnerable to Ukraine’s increasingly sophisticated long-range drones, which can now fly more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles).
“There are many difficulties (for Russia), all because Putin refuses to end his war and to hear our proposals for a meeting, genuine negotiations, and a dignified peace,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin has refused, and a year of U.S.-led peace efforts made no significant headway.
Western officials and analysts say Ukraine’s prospects have improved after more than four years of a grueling war of attrition as its domestic development and production of cutting-edge drones pin down the bigger Russian army.
Trump, who previously has been critical of Zelenskyy, said Wednesday the Ukrainian leader is “courageous” and “doing pretty well” in the war.
Zelenskyy said he won pledges of sustained foreign support when he attended a recent summit of G7 leaders, including Trump, and that promised aid will further help Ukraine’s intensified campaign.
“Our operation, including the one concerning Crimea, has been carefully planned, and the way it is unfolding clearly demonstrates that if Ukraine receives exactly what we discussed with our partners at the G7 – and that depends on our partners´ decisions – we will quickly create conditions in which Russia will be forced to choose peace,” he said.
“We very much hope for a positive response from our partners,” Zelenskyy added. “They know exactly what we are talking about.”
Belarus, whose factories have played a key role in supporting Moscow’s war effort, appears to have turned off signal repeaters on its soil that Kyiv says were used to help guide Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. Moscow launched its 2022 invasion of its southern neighbor from Belarus.
Zelenskyy demanded last week that Belarus, which borders both Ukraine and Russia, remove the relay equipment. He threatened to take action against the relay stations, presumably with a military strike that could bring the countries into direct conflict.
Ukrainian intelligence has determined that the repeaters are now off, Zelenskyy told journalists.
Even so, Zelenskyy said later Thursday on Telegram that “along our state border, Belarus is completing the construction of road infrastructure and storage facilities for ammunition and fuel, which have no purpose other than military use.”
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said he recently met with Zelenskyy’s representatives and warned them against using force against his country. At a meeting with the governor of the Moscow region, he said Belarus has no intention of entering the war and doesn’t want to fight Ukraine but would “stand alongside Russia.”
Ukrainian military officials on Wednesday ordered a mandatory evacuation for the approximately 1,000 people still in the Chernihiv region bordering Russia and Belarus starting July 1.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Lukashenko is walking a fine line.
“Lukashenko continues to stall and deflect the Kremlin’s intensified attempts to drag Belarus into the war in Ukraine while maintaining relatively neutral rhetoric towards Ukraine,” the institute said.
Ukrainian Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of the armed forces, said last week that Ukraine is strengthening defenses on its northern border, including creating new drone units there.
Russia launched a ballistic missile and 90 long-range drones at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.
One drone struck a gas station Thursday in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, injuring four people, said regional administration head Oleh Hryhorov, adding that Russian forces have attacked the region’s gas stations 13 times in June alone.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 269 Ukrainian drones from late Wednesday until early Thursday.
Several Russian airports temporarily restricted flights overnight during drone attacks.
In other developments, the French navy intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean that is suspected of being part of Russia´s so-called shadow fleet of aging vessels of uncertain ownership and safety practices that are dodging sanctions, French authorities said.
The Deliver, sailing under the flag of Cameroon, had departed from the Russian port of Primorsk, authorities said.
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