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Ukrainian intelligence says Vladimir Putin scrapped war rules in September, leading to more Russian strikes on civilian targets like schools and hospitals in Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his military leaders to abandon the rules of war in September, leading to a steep increase in strikes on civilian targets in Kyiv and beyond. Speaking from a bomb shelter inside a school that had just been hit by a Russian jet-powered drone, Zelenskiy cited intercepted communications from Kremlin officials obtained by Ukrainian spy agencies.
Intelligence Reveals Putin's Directive
Zelenskiy said the intelligence showed Putin had scrapped constraints that governed earlier air campaigns. He said Putin declared there are no rules now. The order came as Russia intensified air strikes on Kyiv, hitting schools, hospitals, and data centres.
The Ukrainian president said the bombed school underscored how widespread such targeting had become. The strike occurred just after 9am local time, but 104 students and 60 teachers survived because they reached the underground shelter in time, according to school director Valentyna Chorna.
Zelenskiy said that earlier in the war, Moscow largely focused on energy and military facilities, to which Ukraine responded in kind. Now, he said, Russian drones were going beyond hunting civilians in Kherson and Sumy to strike schools, telecommunications hubs, and data centres. On Monday, one struck Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv. Around the time the school was hit on Thursday, two Russian drones exploded into one of the Ukrainian capital's main bridges.
Civilian Infrastructure Under Attack
Zelenskiy said the attacks are intended not simply to destroy infrastructure but to pressure people and instil fear through relentless bombardments. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia's armed forces do not strike schools or hospitals. Deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime according to international law. But videos from social media show that civilian sites have been hit. Drone debris recovered from the site of Thursday's strike on the Kyiv school bore Russian manufacturers' markings and handwritten Russian text. Some components indicated that they had been manufactured in Russia on July 28th, while some showed they were produced in the West.
Ukraine's education ministry has documented more than 4,700 Russian attacks on educational institutions, while the World Health Organisation has verified strikes on more than 3,000 healthcare facilities, since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022. As he strolled down empty classrooms adorned with children's arts and crafts, the smell of smoke still heavy in the air, Zelenskiy said that because Putin could not capture the territory of the Donbas, he was now pursuing massive attack, massive killing. He said they could not organise occupation, and that is why they do now the same massive attack, massive killing, describing the campaign as an attempt to frighten civilians, force them from cities, and weaken Ukraine's ability to sustain the war.
Russia has in recent weeks intensified its aerial assaults on Kyiv, deploying faster jet-powered drones that have challenged Ukrainian air defences. The attacks have been relentless and have often continued through the night, disrupting daily life for the capital's more than three million residents. Zelenskiy said Russia had launched some 500 drones in the past day, of which about half were jet-powered and much harder to shoot down. He said Ukraine was destroying about 57 per cent of the jet drones and 85-90 per cent of conventional drones.
Ukraine's Race for Air Defences
Ukraine is rushing to produce a high-speed interceptor drone capable of shooting down the Russian jet-powered weapons. Zelenskiy said there are five interceptors currently being tested. By the end of October, he said, Ukraine will be able to produce about 400 of one of those models. The four others remain in the testing stage.
The president said the race to counter the Russian drones faced hurdles, including a shortage of engines for their interceptors. He said engines are key and that they really import a lot of engines, adding that there are some engines of their production, but not enough. He said that Ukraine also faced a budget hole that was preventing the development and mass production of crucial defensive arms.
The escalating air war contrasts with the largely static front line in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have struggled to advance and taken heavy losses. Kyiv and other cities are bracing for a harsh winter, however, as they lack sufficient air defences – mainly US-made Patriot interceptors. The latest Russian campaign comes in response to Ukrainian strikes on refineries, ports, and warehouses deep inside Russia, which have caused fuel shortages and heightened a sense of insecurity in the country's cities and tourist resorts.
Vladimir Putin Volodymyr Zelenskiy Kyiv Russia Ukraine War Civilian Strikes Drones Intelligence
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