Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said over the weekend that the 17-month-old war is “gradually returning” to Russia.
“Russian aggression has gone bankrupt on the battlefield,” Zelensky said Sunday. He added, “Gradually, the war is returning to Russia’s territory—to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable natural and fair process.”
The statement came hours after a three-drone attack inside Russia briefly shut down one of Moscow’s airports and injured one person. It was the fourth such strike inside that city this month.
Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force said the drone attacks were aimed at having a psychological impact on everyday Russians who have so far not felt the impact of their country’s February 2022 invasion of its sovereign neighbor.
“There’s always something flying in Russia, as well as in Moscow. Now the war is affecting those who were not concerned,” Ihnat said on Ukrainian television.
The day before the latest drone strike marked one year since the massacre at the Olenivka POW camp. On July 29, 2022, an explosion in one of the barracks of Olenivka prison in Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine reportedly killed roughly 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war and injured 100 others, though the Russian Defense Ministry is the only source on those casualty figures.
“Let every loss of [Russia] be retribution for its evil,” Zelensky said in a tweet along with a video message Saturday, marking the one-year passage of the incident, “and let every occupier, every Russian murderer, all those responsible for this terror against [Ukraine] and Ukrainians know—while they are still alive—that justice wins. Ukraine will win!”
