12.08.2026
Almost one and a half years have passed since the dispute between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, US President Donald Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance in the Oval Office, which took place on February 28, 2025. At that time, the Ukrainian leader was reproached for saying that Kyiv “has no cards.” However, even then, our military was preparing an operation that was supposed to demonstrate Ukraine’s ability and ambitions to transfer the war to Russian territory.
This is Operation Spiderweb, during which drones secretly imported into the Russian Federation attacked Russian bombers, inflicting painful losses on the aggressor country. Since then, Kyiv has intensified a campaign of long-range strikes on Russia and Ukrainian territories captured by Moscow. Ukraine has an advantage in using Starlink. The Associated Press reports.
Ukraine is moving the war to Russian territory
While most of Ukraine’s strikes have a range of less than 200 kilometers, the number of long-range attacks has increased sharply this year. According to the independent conflict monitoring organization ACLED, Ukraine launched three times as many such strikes in July as in January. The repeated strikes deep into Russian territory have forced the Russian military to deploy air defense systems over a larger area.
A significant portion of these strikes are directed at four main categories of targets. For example, Kyiv has stepped up attacks on oil infrastructure to deprive the Kremlin of fuel export revenues and create shortages for ordinary Russians.
Ukraine is also striking defense manufacturing to undermine Russia’s long-term ability to produce weapons, targeting air defenses to clear the way for its drones and missiles, and attacking Wildberries warehouses because the marketplace openly sells military and dual-use goods to supply the Russian military.
The Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdy “Magyar”, also noted that the strikes on Crimea are aimed at making the peninsula unsuitable for use by Russian troops as a bridgehead.
What advantage does Ukraine have?
Importantly, Ukraine has one advantage that helps it weaken Russian air defenses and make drone strikes more precise. It is access to the Starlink satellite internet network.
This allows Ukrainian operators to control drones in real time in Russian-occupied territory. Meanwhile, Russian access to Starlink terminals in Ukraine has been blocked.
However, according to Brovdy, Russia is also creating its own version of the space internet network and installing electronic jamming systems that interfere with the operation of Starlink.
Significant investments in weapons production
Even before the Oval Office meeting, Ukraine had been investing heavily in new weapons – but that moment was “a real wake-up call,” said a European military official, speaking on condition of anonymity. It became clear that U.S. support could end “in a day.”
Since then, Ukraine has doubled its arms output, producing an increasingly wide range of weapons in greater quantities and reducing traditional development and production cycles from decades to years or even months.
But Ukraine still can’t produce as many missiles as it needs. It also took time for Ukraine to develop systems that could strike targets with enough precision that Kyiv could safely use them to strike deep into Russian territory, said Jack Watling, a senior fellow at the British think tank RUSI.
“And while Ukraine has begun to address the navigation issues of its missiles, such as the Flamingo, these weapons are still not as accurate – and not as stealthy – as their Western counterparts. This often means that hundreds of drones have to be launched to overcome Russian air defenses and get a missile through. It is an expensive and time-consuming way to wage war,” he said.
First results
Ukraine has increased its weapons production, launched strikes against Russian air defenses, as well as against oil infrastructure and Wildberries warehouses, seeking to make ordinary Russians feel the consequences of the conflict.
“To Putin’s great chagrin, Ukrainian drone strikes raised thick columns of smoke over St. Petersburg shortly before the opening of the International Economic Forum in June. Concerns about the Ukrainian attacks forced Russian authorities to reduce the scale of the May 9 military parade dedicated to the victory over Nazi Germany. Strikes on oil refineries caused a summer fuel crisis,” the article said.
During Trump and Zelensky’s meeting at the NATO summit in July, the US president said the Ukrainian leader had “acted very effectively” during the war. However, as Ukraine’s attacks have intensified, so have Russia’s – and Kyiv is facing serious defensive challenges due to a shortage of American missiles for its Patriot air defense systems.
As OBOZ.UA reported, Ukraine will continue to expand long-range strikes on Russian facilities. After the destruction of an oil facility in Tobolsk, located more than 2.5 thousand kilometers from Ukraine, for the first time in history, Russia was effectively left without a secure strategic rear, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.