Putin has told military leaders to abandon rules of war, Zelenskiy says

Russian president Vladimir Putin has instructed his military leaders to abandon the rules of war, prompting a steep increase in strikes on civilian targets amid a big push to regain the advantage in the conflict, according to intelligence intercepted by Kyiv.Speaking in a bomb shelter inside a school that had just been hit by a Russian jet-powered drone, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukrainian spy agencies had obtained information that the Russian president had scrapped the constraints that governed earlier air campaigns.“He said there are no rules now,” Zelenskiy said, referring to the intelligence that included intercepted communications from Kremlin officials.Zelenskiy said Putin gave the order in September, as Russia began intensifying its air strikes on Kyiv, hitting schools, hospitals and data centres. The Ukrainian president said the bombed school underscored how widespread such targeting had become.READ MOREThe latest Russian campaign comes in response to Ukrainian strikes on refineries, ports and warehouses deep inside Russia, which have caused fuel shortages and heightened a sense of insecurity in the country’s cities and tourist resorts.The escalating air war contrasts with the largely static front line in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have struggled to advance and taken heavy losses. Kyiv and other cities are bracing for a harsh winter, however, as they lack sufficient air defences – mainly US-made Patriot interceptors.[ Russia plans most powerful blow yet to freeze Ukraine this winterOpens in new window ]The Kyiv school’s director, Valentyna Chorna, said 104 students and 60 teachers survived the attack because they had managed to get to the underground shelter before the drone hit the building just after 9am local time.Zelenskiy said that earlier in the war, Moscow largely focused its attacks on energy and military facilities, to which Ukraine has responded in kind.Now, he said, Russian drones were going beyond hunting civilians in Kherson and Sumy to strike schools, telecommunications hubs and data centres.Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike on the building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv. Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA On Monday, one struck Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv. Around the time the school was hit on Thursday, two Russian drones exploded into one of the Ukrainian capital’s main bridges.Zelenskiy said the attacks are intended not simply to destroy infrastructure but “to pressure people” and instil fear through relentless bombardments.Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “Russia’s armed forces do not strike schools or hospitals.” Deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime according to international law.[ At least seven reported killed as Russia attacks Ukraine’s energy gridOpens in new window ]But videos from social media show that civilian sites have been hit.Drone debris recovered from the site of Thursday’s strike on the Kyiv school bore Russian manufacturers’ markings and handwritten Russian text. Some components indicated that they had been manufactured in Russia on July 28th, while some showed they were produced in the West.Ukraine’s education ministry has documented more than 4,700 Russian attacks on educational institutions, while the World Health Organisation has verified strikes on more than 3,000 healthcare facilities, since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/ AFP via Getty As he strolled down empty classrooms adorned with children’s arts and crafts, the smell of smoke still heavy in the air, Zelenskiy said that because Putin could not capture the territory of the Donbas, he was now pursuing “massive attack[s], massive killing”.“They couldn’t organise occupation, and that’s why they do now the same massive attack, massive killing,” he said in English, describing the campaign as an attempt to frighten civilians, force them from cities and weaken Ukraine’s ability to sustain the war.Russia has in recent weeks intensified its aerial assaults on Kyiv, deploying faster jet-powered drones that have challenged Ukrainian air defences. The attacks have been relentless and have often continued through the night, disrupting daily life for the capital’s more than three million residents.[ Russia’s new jet-powered drones are fuelling anxiety in UkraineOpens in new window ]Zelenskiy said Russia had launched some 500 drones in the past day, of which about half were jet-powered and much harder to shoot down. He said Ukraine was destroying about 57 per cent of the jet drones and 85-90 per cent of conventional drones.Ukraine is rushing to produce a high-speed interceptor drone capable of shooting down the Russian jet-powered weapons. Zelenskiy said there are five interceptors currently being tested. By the end of October, he said, Ukraine will be able to produce about 400 of one of those models. The four others remain in the testing stage.The president said the race to counter the Russian drones faced hurdles, including a shortage of engines for their interceptors. “Engines [are] the key, we really import a lot of engines,” he said. “There are some engines of our production, but not enough.”He said that Ukraine also faced a budget hole that was preventing the development and mass production of crucial defensive arms.Zelenskiy said US-made F-16 jets were proving effective against Russia’s new jet-powered drones, but that too many of the aircraft – about half – were spending lengthy periods in Europe for repairs and maintenance.Some jets, he said, were taking so long to return that Ukraine was losing valuable time when the fighters were most needed to defend its skies.He said Kyiv wanted its western partners’ help to move more maintenance work inside Ukraine, arguing that keeping the aircraft closer to the battlefield would allow them to be returned to service faster.Zelenskiy criticised the US and European governments for what he described as insufficient political will to force Putin to end the war, arguing that Ukraine’s partners had the economic and diplomatic leverage to exert greater pressure on Moscow.When asked whether his partners were doing all they could to help Kyiv, Zelenskiy said: “Not enough, of course not enough.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026