Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that drone strikes on Russian soil show Russia that “your sky is not as well protected as you think.”
Zelenskyy was asked by CBS “60 Minutes” about drone strikes on Russian territory, which have increased in recent weeks.
Drones have taken out Russian warplanes in airfields hundreds of miles from the fighting in Ukraine, and have also targeted Moscow, shutting down its airports.
Zelenskyy said that the attacks were not carried out on his orders.
But when asked about the message the drone strikes were sending, he said: “Russia needs to know that wherever it is, whichever place they use for launching missiles to strike Ukraine, Ukraine has every moral right to send a response to those places.”
“We are responding to them, saying: ‘Your sky is not as well protected as you think,'” he added.
Russia has been using drones and missiles in Ukraine to hit sites far from the front lines.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for most of the strikes in its country, but Ukraine has rarely taken responsibility, in keeping with a general policy of not acknowledging attacks on Russian soil.
Rebel groups within Russia that oppose the invasion of Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin have taken responsibility for some attacks on Russian soil, but not the recent hits on warplanes.
Zelenskyy also told CBS that Ukraine only uses the weapons it gets from its allies in the fighting in Ukraine, as it promised them.
Earlier this month a top Ukrainian security official said that Ukraine was developing its own missiles that will be capable of hitting targets as far as 930 miles into Russian territory.
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