President Putin described Ukraine’s “40-day operation” as retaliation against Russia and said it had led to an escalation of long-range attacks inside Russia. United Nations statistics show that civilian deaths are rising.
Russian President Putin justified the intensification of the Russian military’s long-range attacks on Ukraine by saying that Ukraine’s “40-day operation” was retaliation aimed at weakening Russia’s national power.
He also said that, by targeting Russia’s economic infrastructure, Ukraine had “opened Pandora’s box itself,” and claimed that the attacks would reduce Ukraine’s ability to continue fighting.
The SBU announced that it had launched the “40-day operation” in late June and successfully carried out more than 100 attacks on military production plants, oil-related facilities and other targets in Russia through early August.
During this period, Russia escalated attacks on Ukraine’s economic infrastructure under the pretext of the operation. According to United Nations figures, civilian deaths in July reached 437.