KYIV, June 3 - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s stepped-up long-range strikes deep inside Russia have put Kyiv in a stronger position to negotiate an end to the war on equal terms with Moscow. His comments came soon after one of the recent barrages hit an oil terminal and a naval base located hundreds of kilometres from Ukraine’s borders.
Zelenskiy said the intensification of attacks on Russian fossil fuel industry sites - operations Kyiv’s forces have targeted for months - is designed to cut a major source of funding for Moscow’s war effort and to increase pressure on the Kremlin to engage in talks. "Thank God that today we have security guarantees that allow us to end this war on equal footing with the Russians in any format of diplomacy," he told reporters in Kyiv, speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
According to Zelenskiy, the expansion of long-range strikes is likely to continue. He said it is "only a question of time" before Ukraine further increases the scale of such operations. Some Russian refineries have been forced to suspend operations as a result of this campaign, and Zelenskiy said the strikes have bolstered morale among Ukrainians who have been living under the threat of Russian drones and missiles for more than four years.
Analysts cited by Zelenskiy and others have noted that as Kyiv has intensified attacks on targets inside Russia, Ukrainian forces on the battlefield appear to be on their strongest footing in years. The same analysis suggests that Russia’s spring offensive is sputtering in part because Ukrainian counterattacks have kept Russian territorial gains minimal.
On diplomacy, Zelenskiy reiterated his readiness to meet directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kyiv has long maintained that face-to-face talks are necessary to resolve the main outstanding issue that has stalled negotiations - the status of eastern Donbas. Russia, which has not fully occupied the region since the full-scale invasion began, has demanded that Ukrainian troops withdraw from areas it currently controls in Donbas.
Zelenskiy said he was prepared for direct talks with Putin "to bring this war to an end, rather than waiting for when all will resolve every conflict in the world before our turn finally comes," a remark that referenced, in his view, the U.S.-brokered negotiations and attention being paid by the United States to its conflict with Iran.
Context and implications
- Expanded long-range strikes have targeted Russian energy infrastructure and naval facilities hundreds of kilometres inside Russia.
- Disruption to Russian refineries has been reported, and the strikes are intended to reduce a key funding stream for Moscow.
- Military analysts describe Ukrainian battlefield performance as relatively strong while Russian spring operations have stalled.
The developments combine military pressure and diplomatic signaling: Kyiv is both degrading infrastructure it says sustains Moscow’s war effort and pressing for talks from a position it describes as more equal.