Zelensky says Ukrainian drones now reach Russian factories in Siberia
He says General Winter has switched sides and warns of consequences if Russia keeps targeting Ukraine.
Published
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian long-range drones can now strike Russian military factories in Siberia, something he said Moscow could never have imagined when it started the war. He said General Winter, once an ally of Russian forces, has switched sides.
Zelensky warned of consequences if Russia keeps targeting Ukraine. He also said Russia is preparing a large-scale attack on Ukraine.
The warning came the same day US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in New York, at 9am Eastern. The Kremlin said conditions for peace talks with Ukraine are not yet ready.
Zelensky made other claims about Russia's weakening position on the same day. He said Russia's budget deficit is now bigger than in any other year, and said Putin recently made US representatives a promise he characterized as hollow and repeated before.
The drone claim sits awkwardly next to those statements. A leader describing an adversary's finances as unsustainable and its summer campaign as failed is also warning that Russia is massing for a major strike and asking the West for more air defense. That combination points to Ukrainian reach that remains limited by equipment shortages rather than to a shift in who holds the advantage on the battlefield. The warning tone in Zelensky's remarks works against any sense of momentum his boast about Siberia might otherwise suggest.