Zelenskyy says Ukraine will intensify attacks to force end to war

Ukraine launched one of its largest drone assaults of the war on Friday. Russia intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones over 12 regions, Russian-held Crimea, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea. The strike landed as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered a 40-day influence operation aimed at compelling Russia to end the war.

Zelenskyy called the campaign a strategic shift toward hitting the assets that keep Russia's invasion running. Ukrainian forces are targeting facilities that sustain Moscow's war effort in occupied territory and on Russian soil. He said fresh promises of support from G7 leaders, including President Donald Trump, would strengthen Ukraine's long-range reach ahead of a NATO summit next month.

In the Tula region south of Moscow, Governor Dmitry Milyaev said a private house was damaged, a woman was wounded, a power line was hit and an industrial facility in Novomoskovsk was damaged. In Crimea, Russian-installed authorities declared a state of emergency after repeated attacks disrupted power and fuel supplies, halted all civilian fuel sales and suspended tourism and children's summer camps; blackouts had also hit Sevastopol, the peninsula's largest city.

Ukrainian long-range drones have been battering oil and energy facilities behind the front line and deep inside Russia, choking fuel supplies and military deliveries while forcing Moscow to spread out its air defenses. Ukrainian officials say Russia has moved some air defenses toward Moscow and the Kerch Bridge, thinning protection elsewhere, and the Kremlin has threatened frequent "massive group strikes" in response to earlier raids on Moscow.