Nearly four and a half years after Russian tanks stormed into Ukraine at the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion, the Kremlin has for the first time referred to the confrontation as a "war" rather than a "special military operation."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that after Western countries intervened, "the special military operation turned into a real war." "Under these circumstances, the Kyiv regime is capable of anything," Peskov added during a press briefing at the presidential office in Moscow.
Peskov's remarks came after nearly four and a half years of fighting, during which Moscow's forces have suffered hundreds of thousands of deaths and more than a million fighters have been removed from the combat cycle. Russia is now facing the height of a Ukrainian offensive on its oil infrastructure, with severe fuel shortages reported across large parts of the country. Ukrainian drones, along with cruise missiles manufactured in Ukraine, are striking various locations in Russia on a daily basis, including the capital Moscow, while Russia's air defense systems have sustained heavy blows.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the fighting in eastern Ukraine during a visit to a forward military command post, offering an optimistic forecast for the continuation of the war. Putin claimed his forces had succeeded in capturing the town of Kostiantynivka in the Donbas region and that his soldiers "are in every part of the city." Ukraine rejected the claims, saying they were false.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched around 2,200 attack drones, more than 1,730 guided aerial bombs and 106 missiles of various types at Ukraine over the past week. In a statement on Telegram, Zelenskyy emphasized the relentless nature of the campaign targeting civilian infrastructure and frontline communities across the country.
The president said that while Ukraine's air defense forces were now intercepting more than 90% of incoming attack drones, the military remained highly vulnerable to ballistic missiles and the heavy guided bombs included in these massive strike packages. Zelenskyy cited a recent ballistic missile strike on Kyiv, which killed 31 people and wounded 102, as stark evidence of that vulnerability.
