‘Skies Will Determine Outcome’: Zelensky Says 1,000 Drones Over Moscow Will Change Putin’s Calculus
Zelensky said the decisive phase of Russia’s war has shifted to the skies, arguing that Ukraine’s expanding drone campaign and stronger Western air defenses will determine the war’s outcome. He called for more Patriot systems and licensed production in Ukraine, defended deep strikes inside Russia, a
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The decisive phase of Russia’s full-scale invasion has shifted from land and sea to the skies, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, arguing that Ukraine’s ability to win the air war – backed by stronger Western air defenses – will determine the war’s outcome.
In an interview with the Financial Times (FT) published Monday, July 6, hours after another massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv, Zelensky said Ukraine had already denied Russia victory on the ground and pushed much of its Black Sea Fleet away from the western Black Sea, leaving control of the air as the war’s defining battlefield.
“Today I believe victory in this war belongs to whoever is smarter,” Zelensky said. “If you stop the enemy on the battlefield, if you stop the war on land, and if you deny him dominance at sea – as we did with our naval drones, driving the Russian fleet away – then the next battlefield becomes the sky.”
“In that contest it matters far less whose territory is larger,” he added. “We have moved into the air domain. And in the air, we are already competitive.”
Moscow’s foreign intelligence agency links war in Ukraine to an unresolved 1850s grievance between Britain and Russia.
He said Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles have sometimes arrived “literally the day before a massive attack.” Speaking ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Zelensky said he would urge allies not only to provide more Patriots but also to help Ukraine develop its own anti-ballistic missile capabilities.
“Europe should stop being negligent in this regard. It should share technologies and industrial capabilities with other countries, because there will never be enough Patriots for everyone.”
He added that Ukraine has repeatedly asked Washington to approve licensed Patriot production.
“I have been raising this issue for years. We are waiting for a positive signal from the United States.”
Long-range drones reshape the war
Zelensky argued that Ukraine’s expanding fleet of long-range drones has fundamentally changed the battlefield by enabling increasingly deep strikes against Russian military and energy infrastructure.
He said those operations have already demonstrated Ukraine’s ability to contest Russian air superiority.
“Our soldiers, through their sacrifice, stopped Russia on the ground. When the front is largely static, and the enemy cannot operate freely at sea, what remains is the air.”
The president also confirmed that Ukraine would continue intensifying strikes against military targets in occupied Crimea.
“The objective,” he said, is to hit “military bases, depots, air defense – all the sites from which aircraft take off, from which we receive missile strikes – and, of course, the logistics that supply and sustain everything.”
He said Ukraine shifted its focus to striking military targets in occupied Crimea after carrying out numerous attacks on Russia’s energy sector and port infrastructure.
“We first struck Russia’s energy sector and the port infrastructure where they make money from energy, and then spend it on military bases and military production,” Zelensky said.
The president argued that Ukraine’s campaign is beginning to affect Russia’s business community.
“Russian business has begun to understand that they are not going to win this war. They are losing both time and money, and, frankly, they will also lose hope, because many of them believed they could conquer us,” he said.
Trump “wants to be where there’s success”
Zelensky also discussed his recent conversation with US President Donald Trump, saying Trump had praised Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign. According to Zelensky, Trump told him Ukraine “is doing very well” with its deep-strike operations.
Asked whether the conversation suggested a shift in Trump’s position, Zelensky replied:
“President Trump wants to be where there’s success. That’s tied to many things – not only to his personality, but to the approaching elections, to his status, to his belief in how this war can be ended.”
“We’re getting much closer than people realize. President Putin wants it to end... And President Zelensky actually wants it to end now.”
Zelensky said Ukraine entered the full-scale war unprepared to counter large-scale ballistic missile attacks because Soviet-era anti-ballistic missile capabilities remained under Moscow’s control after the collapse of the USSR.
He linked that vulnerability to Ukraine’s decision in the 1990s to give up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances from Russia and the West.
“Without nuclear weapons, you are no longer part of the club that others fear attacking. Instead, you become part of the club that can be attacked.”
Despite repeated Russian missile and drone attacks, Zelensky said that Ukraine could prevail if international military support continues.
“If our partners do not abandon Ukraine financially, if our soldiers continue holding the front, if every kilometer of Russian advance continues to cost them tens of thousands – and sometimes hundreds of thousands – of personnel, then the decisive struggle will take place in the skies.”
“Because the skies will determine the outcome of this war.”
Putin will feel the war when it reaches Moscow
Zelensky said Ukraine would continue intensifying strikes on military targets inside Russia and in Russian-occupied territories.
According to the president, the Kremlin leader was largely unconcerned by Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign until it began reaching Moscow and St. Petersburg.
“He understood that the war was far from the Kremlin. But once he starts feeling what is happening in Moscow, he will begin to understand what is happening in the Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions,” Zelensky said.
He argued that sustained deep strikes would eventually force Putin to confront the realities of the war.
“When it is no longer one hundred drones but one thousand flying towards Moscow... You will see advisers urging him to relocate somewhere beyond the Urals.”
“That will mark a new chapter on the path to ending the war. The farther Putin is from Moscow, the closer the end of the war and the closer peace will be,” he added, arguing that the Russian leader fears for his own safety.
Zelensky also said the campaign is intended to pressure Russia’s political elite.
“Where do the Russian elites live? Moscow and St. Petersburg. Those are the two main cities. That’s where the drones will fly, because that’s where the decisions to kill us are made,” he said.
