UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mocked Russia's military drive on Monday (June 29), saying the Kremlin over the course of more than four years had set and put off 15 deadlines to capture the eastern Donbas region.
Zelenskiy's comments amounted to a response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's rejection a day earlier of what the Kremlin leader said was a Ukrainian proposal to abandon long-range strikes and scale down the fighting.
He said Putin's comments showed he was out of touch with the feelings of Russians who faced queues at petrol stations, linked to a Ukrainian campaign of strikes on oil industry targets.
"Even an oil-producing state, a 'gas station' as Russia has often been called, is now facing fuel shortages," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
"This is a direct consequence of the war. One of many consequences. It is also one example of how Ukraine responds — with precision, not through terrorism."
Zelenskiy explained at considerable length what he said had been 15 deadlines set — and later put back — by the Kremlin over the course of four years to capture four regions in eastern Ukraine — Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas, and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
"Russia's political leadership remains obsessed with Donbas," he said. "If Russia does not end the war, it will have to postpone that deadline once again."
In the weeks following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces initially tried to advance on the capital Kyiv, but when they failed to complete that advance they withdrew and focused efforts on capturing Donbas.
Russia has captured all of the Luhansk region and large chunks of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Although Moscow's forces are slowly moving westward through Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials say the advance has slowed considerably while Ukraine steps up its campaign of medium and long-range drone strikes.
