Speaking to the Reuters news agency on Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence services had reviewed documents revealing Russia’s “new doctrine” of striking roads, schools, hospitals and other civilian sites.
Moscow aims to “pressure people to leave the [Ukrainian] capital, leave different cities”, Zelenskyy said.
“But we will not respond, of course, just like them, on any civilian objects.”On Saturday, Russia reported casualties from Ukrainian attacks.
Two people were reportedly killed in a Ukrainian strike on the Russia-occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine, according to the Moscow-installed governor.
Ukraine has also engaged in significant long-range strikes, including targeting Russian oil infrastructure and military-industrial facilities deep inside Russian territory.
Ukrainian president says new intelligence shows Moscow aims to ‘pressure people to leave’ Kyiv and other cities.
At least five people have been killed in a series of long-range strikes carried out by Kyiv and Moscow, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine has new evidence that Russia is purposefully targeting civilian infrastructure.
Russia attacked a Liberian-flagged ship in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Saturday, killing one person and injuring three, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority said in a statement on Telegram. Another 12 crew members were safely evacuated from the ship. Russia separately hit a cargo ship in Ukraine’s Odesa port, the Interfax news agency reported.
A Russian attack on Kyiv’s Northern Bridge meanwhile injured two people. It is the second bridge Russia has attacked in the Ukrainian capital in the space of two days.
Russia has in effect blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports – formerly a key global source of food exports – by attacking civilian vessels carrying grain and steel, dealing a heavy blow to the Ukrainian economy.
The latest attacks follow days of heavy strikes on Kyiv that have stoked fears across the capital.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency on Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence services had reviewed documents revealing Russia’s “new doctrine” of striking roads, schools, hospitals and other civilian sites.
Moscow aims to “pressure people to leave the [Ukrainian] capital, leave different cities”, Zelenskyy said. “This is the goal of the operation.”
Ukraine plans to respond to the change in tactics by Moscow, but not by targeting civilian infrastructure indiscriminately, he added.
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“With their attacks on our energy, we have to respond on their energy,” Zelenskyy said in English. “But we will not respond, of course, just like them, on any civilian objects.”
On Saturday, Russia reported casualties from Ukrainian attacks.
Two people were reportedly killed in a Ukrainian strike on the Russia-occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine, according to the Moscow-installed governor.
In the occupied Zaporizhia region, Russian-installed authorities said one person was killed and 10 others injured in a Ukrainian drone attack.
Russian media also reported that one person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod region, which sits just across the border from Ukraine.
Russia warns diplomats, foreigners
Also on Saturday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued another warning to diplomats and foreigners in Ukraine’s capital, urging them to leave the city or risk being harmed.
Many foreign embassies are still operating in Kyiv.
Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine is in its fifth year and shows little sign of slowing down.
Russian battlefield gains have slowed to a near-record low. Zelenskyy said a Ukrainian counteroffensive known as “Vivaldi” had recaptured about 140 square kilometres (54 square miles) of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which Russia has claimed it must control as a precondition for any peace deal.
But the Ukrainian leader warned the United States – which has proposed new trilateral talks in the coming weeks in the United Arab Emirates – not to believe in “illusions” that Russia would end the peace deal if it gained control of Donbas.
An exact date and location for any talks has not materialised, Zelenskyy said.
Russia has increased its attacks on civilian infrastructure in recent months, including with the growing use of jet-powered long-range strike drones, which move faster and are harder to shoot down.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine has been forced to rely on its fighter aircraft to down about 60 percent of the Russian jet-powered drones, but supplies of ammunition for the planes are running low.
Kyiv is anticipating the first shipment of small, cheaper air defence missiles in the second half of October.
Ukraine has also engaged in significant long-range strikes, including targeting Russian oil infrastructure and military-industrial facilities deep inside Russian territory.
Recent Ukrainian shelling has damaged external power supply equipment at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, the plant said on Saturday.
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Russia seized the site in the early weeks of the war in 2022.
