President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine threatened to escalate attacks on Russia if Moscow repeated last winter’s strategy of bombing Ukrainian power plants, leaving millions of Ukrainians battling freezing temperatures without power, heat and water.
The warning, issued by Mr. Zelensky in an interview with the CBS News show “60 Minutes,” comes as the war heads into a new winter and Ukraine has shown it can reach targets deep inside Russia.
“If you cut off our power, deprive us of electricity, deprive us of water, deprive us of gasoline, you should know that we have the right to do that too,” Mr. Zelensky said, according to a transcript released by “60 Minutes .” Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, had ordered attacks on civilian targets, Mr. Zelensky added, in an attempt to “break” the spirit of Ukrainians.
Last winter, Russia tried to weaponize it again, a campaign that ultimately failed but at times left millions of Ukrainians without heat and dependent on ancient wells for water. This year, Ukraine is boldly threatening to do the same to the Russians, using mainly attack drones.
In recent months, the frequency of drones fired at Russian targets has increased dramatically. They have hit a key bridge connecting the Crimean Peninsula with Russia, recently damaged Russian naval vessels in the region and threatened the Belgorod border area. They have also penetrated deep into Russia’s borders – into the greater Moscow region – but have not caused significant damage there.
Ukraine does not officially recognize attacks on Russian territory, even though Mr. Zelensky and other top officials have said they plan to take the war to ordinary Russians. In the “60 Minutes” interview, Mr. Zelensky again tried to be ambiguous about the attacks, even as he said: “Ukrainian drones have invaded Russia itself, hitting the Kremlin, warplanes and high-rise buildings in Moscow.”
He further emphasized that he did not order the drone strikes and that Ukraine uses weapons supplied by its allies only on Ukrainian territory.
“But Russia must know that wherever it is, whatever place it uses to launch missiles to hit Ukraine, Ukraine has every moral right to send a response to those places,” Mr. Zelensky said. “We respond to them and say, ‘Your heaven is not as well protected as you think.’”