Zelensky: Russia has taken aim at Ukraine’s missile industry

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia has identified companies developing missile technologies as priority targets for future strikes.

The statement came on Wednesday, several hours after the largest missile attack on Ukraine since the start of the year.

Zelensky said in a Telegram post that a briefing by military intelligence chief Oleh Ivashchenko revealed that Russia views Ukraine’s growing capacity to develop its own ballistic missiles and missile defense systems as a strategic threat. He said this indicates a shift in Russian targeting priorities toward Ukraine’s defense-industrial base, particularly enterprises working in the field of missile technologies.

During the same briefing, new internal Russian political planning documents were obtained. According to Zelensky, these documents show that one of Moscow’s key political goals is “limiting our security ties, economic and other strategic relations” with Moldova, the South Caucasus, and countries of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

Zelensky interpreted this information as confirmation that Ukraine and its partners are “moving in the right direction — toward greater security, further strengthening of sovereignty, and the complete neutralization of Russian influence.”

The intelligence was disclosed following a devastating combined strike carried out in the early hours of Tuesday. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones at Ukrainian cities. The bombardment killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 100; the strikes hit Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Poltava, and Zaporizhzhia. Russia’s Defense Ministry stated that the strikes targeted Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex” — as reported by Al Jazeera. A notable feature of the attack was the heavy use of ballistic and hypersonic missiles, which for the first time this year outnumbered cruise missiles.

The strikes on Ukraine’s missile industry come as Kyiv accelerates the development of its own offensive and defensive capabilities. On Sunday, appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Zelensky said that anti-ballistic missiles are Ukraine’s “top priority” and noted that American production is insufficient to meet demand. Ukraine is also forming a European coalition to create a continental missile defense system — Sweden has agreed to become the first major partner in the project, Euromaidan Press reports. The initiative aims to produce interceptors in Europe in order to reduce dependence on American systems.

Concluding his address, Zelensky called on Europe to do “significantly more” to support the countries that Russia is trying to isolate.

“This is not merely a matter of political choice. It is about the fundamental right of a people to determine their own future independently,” he wrote.