Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his military leadership to abandon restrictions on air attacks against Ukraine in September, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as Moscow intensifies its campaign against civilian infrastructure.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence had intercepted conversations between Kremlin officials indicating that Putin had ordered Russian forces to operate without the restrictions that had previously governed their aerial attacks.
“He (Putin – ed.) said there are no rules now,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president said the alleged order came as Russia began escalating its attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, with schools, hospitals and data centres among the sites struck.
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Zelenskyy pointed to an October 1 Russian attack on a school in Kyiv as evidence of what he described as a widening campaign against civilian targets.
The claims come as Russia and Ukraine have intensified long-range strikes deep behind each other’s front lines, turning energy infrastructure, industrial facilities and transport networks into central targets in an increasingly destructive phase of the war.
Kyiv has stepped up attacks on Russian oil refineries, ports and fuel storage facilities in recent months, seeking to disrupt the infrastructure supporting Moscow’s military machine and put pressure on domestic fuel supplies.
The strikes have also increased the sense of insecurity in parts of Russia, including major cities and tourist destinations, according to Ukrainian officials.
Moscow has repeatedly described Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory as terrorism and has responded with waves of missiles and drones against Ukrainian infrastructure. Kyiv, meanwhile, argues that attacks on Russia’s energy sector are intended to reduce the resources available to sustain the invasion.
The escalation has raised particular concern ahead of the winter months, when Ukraine’s electricity and heating systems become especially vulnerable to sustained bombardment.
Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia is preparing another major campaign against the country’s energy system, potentially involving hundreds of missiles, drones and bombs aimed at power plants, electricity substations and water infrastructure.
A separate Ukrainian assessment reported that Russia could deploy as many as 1,000 missiles, drones and bombs in a large-scale assault on energy infrastructure.
Such attacks would revive one of the defining features of Russia’s winter campaigns since the full-scale invasion began: attempts to degrade Ukraine’s electricity supply while forcing millions of civilians to endure prolonged blackouts during freezing temperatures.
For Kyiv, the latest escalation is also evidence that Russia is responding directly to Ukraine’s growing ability to strike targets hundreds of kilometres inside Russian territory.
The result is a rapidly expanding battlefield in which refineries, ports, warehouses, power stations and civilian infrastructure have become part of the strategic contest.
Zelenskyy’s allegation that Putin ordered the removal of restrictions could not be independently verified from the information provided. But his warning comes as both sides expand their use of long-range weapons and the distinction between battlefield targets and the wider infrastructure sustaining the war becomes increasingly difficult to maintain.
With winter approaching, Ukraine faces the prospect of another sustained Russian assault on the systems that keep its cities functioning — while Kyiv continues to demonstrate that Russia’s own strategic infrastructure is increasingly within reach.
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