In a televised address to the nation on Sunday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky explained that bringing that fight back into Russian territory is “inevitable” and that attacks on Moscow are “absolutely fair.”
“Ukraine is getting stronger. Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process,” Zelensky said in prepared remarks.
“Russian aggression has gone bankrupt on the battlefield. Today is the 522nd day of the so-called ‘special military operation,’ which the Russian leadership expected to last for a week or two,” he added .
The president’s comments came just hours after three Ukrainian drones were deployed to Moscow in what the Russian defense ministry condemned as an “attempted terrorist attack.”
“On the morning of July 30, the Kyiv regime’s attempted terrorist attack with unmanned aerial vehicles [UAV] on objects in the city of Moscow was thwarted,” the agency wrote on Telegram following the offensive.
“One Ukrainian UAV was destroyed in the air by air defense systems over the territory of the Odintsovo district of Moscow region. Two more drones were suppressed by electronic warfare and, having lost control, crashed on the territory of Moscow-City’s non-residential building complex.”
The attack on the Russian capital was part of a broader drone deployment on Sunday. Two hours later, Ukraine reportedly deployed 25 more drones to attack the Crimean Peninsula, a territory occupied by Putin’s forces since 2014.
“Sixteen Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed by air defense fire,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement afterward. “Another nine Ukrainian drones were suppressed by means of electronic warfare and, without reaching the target, crashed into the Black Sea.”
Ukraine’s pledge to bring the fighting back to Russia came shortly after former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev alluded to the use of nuclear weapons.
“Imagine if the…offensive, which is backed by NATO, was a success and they tore off a part of our land, then we would be forced to use a nuclear weapon according to the rules of a decree from the president of Russia,” Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the country’s security council, wrote on social-media on Sunday.
The escalation in violence comes as Ukraine is set to begin discussions with the United States on security guarantees and the process of joining NATO, a collective defense organization. “We are starting talks with the United States (this) week,” Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.
“Security guarantees for Ukraine will be concrete, long-term obligations ensuring Ukraine’s capacity to defeat and restrain Russian aggression in the future. These will be clearly drafted formats and mechanisms of support.”