Zelensky says Ukraine has developed a long-range weapon: ‘Hit target at…’

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv has developed a weapon that hit a target 700 kilometers away, in an apparent reference to the a strike on an airport in western Russia earlier. The weapon was produced by Ukraine’s ministry of strategic industries, he said, without giving any other details. On Wednesday, a wave of drones that Moscow blamed on Ukraine hit an airport near Russia’s border with Estonia and Latvia. Four Il-76 military transport planes were damaged in the strikes, it was reported. The airport is in Russia’s Pskov region, about 700 kilometers north of the Ukrainian border.

In all, six Russian regions were targeted in the barrage. It was unclear whether the drones were launched from Ukraine or inside Russia.

But Zelensky’s remark was the clearest hint that Ukraine was behind the strike.

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The attack forced the closure of Pskov airport though it reopened later, according to Russian transport officials. Another drone intercepted overnight near Moscow resulted in flight delays at several airports around the Russian capital, officials said. No injuries were reported, news agency Associated Press reported.

Russian news agency Interfax reported that security services killed two people and detained five members of a Ukrainian sabotage group in the Bryansk border region. The apparent Ukrainian drones reaching deep into Russia and cross-border sabotage missions are part of Kyiv’s efforts to heap domestic pressure on the Kremlin, expert claim as Ukraine is aiming to “erode Russian morale and increase pressure on its commanders,” the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank, said.

The strategy is “to bring Russian forces to a tipping point where combat power and morale may begin to break,” it said.

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