‘Long-range sanctions’: Ukraine hopes strikes cause Russia fear and losses
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- Al Jazeera was given rare access to Ukraine's Kairos Battalion of the Magyars Birds Brigade, a long-range drone unit in eastern Ukraine launching UAVs roughly the length of a compact SUV with a 6-meter wingspan.
- Ukraine's long-range drones now strike targets more than 2,500km inside Russia — including Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Siberia — after Kyiv ramped up deep strikes in March despite initial Western calls for restraint.
- Ukrainian officials coined the phrase 'long-range sanctions' for drone strikes on Russia's oil and gas sector, which accounts for roughly one-fifth of federal budget revenues.
- The campaign has expanded beyond energy to commercial targets including Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, which Ukraine accuses of selling body armor, drone components, and fiber optic cables used to kill Ukrainian soldiers.
- Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak says the strikes pursue three objectives: fear, economic losses, and making Russians 'feel the reality of war.'
Why it matters: By hitting consumer-facing platforms like Wildberries alongside state oil revenue sources, Ukraine is widening pressure from government budgets into Russians' daily economy — and a 2,500km reach that Colonel Ray's troops can repeat nightly turns successful deep strikes into a sustained morale weapon as much as an economic one.
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