Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had signed a decree creating within the Armed Forces of Ukraine a special command for long-range impact on Russia. He announced this in his evening address.
“This command must concentrate 100% of the available resources in order to reduce Russia’s military potential even more tangibly,” Zelensky said.
The president did not name who would head the new structure. He only said the person would be “maximally experienced.”
Zelensky also said Ukraine was seeing new results from its long-range actions against Russia. According to him, the fuel crisis in Russia is deepening, and he linked this to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unwillingness to end the war.
“We have offered proposals on how to bring peace closer, and we have support not only among partners around the world but also within Putin’s circle. They understand what is happening and that the world has no alternative,” the Ukrainian president added.
In recent weeks, Russia’s fuel crisis has indeed worsened because of Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries. The source material says the AFU attacked the country’s largest refineries.
The source also notes that U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking with Zelensky at the NATO summit in Ankara, described the increased Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure as an “escalation,” but said such escalation could help bring the war to an end. In Putin’s view, Ukraine is using these strikes to damage the Russian economy and create a “nervous atmosphere in society.”