Khmara told how Ukraine will increase pressure on Russia

Ukraine intends to consistently strengthen its long-range capabilities and increase the scale of production of its own weapons. The so-called "long-range sanctions" should increase pressure on Russia and ultimately contribute to achieving a just peace, said Yevhen Khmara, Acting Minister of Defense of Ukraine.

According to him, the capabilities of Ukrainian weapons will continue to grow both quantitatively and technologically.

"Ukraine's long-range sanctions against Russia will force the aggressor country to come to a just peace. Ukrainian weapons will only become more massive and precise", — the statement by Khmara, distributed by the Ministry of Defense, says.

The head of the defense department did not disclose specific types of weapons, planned production volumes, or parameters of further operations.

What Ukraine calls "long-range sanctions"

The Ukrainian leadership uses the term "long-range sanctions" to refer to strikes on targets on Russian territory that are related to the war against Ukraine. This is not about economic restrictions in the traditional sense, but about a military instrument of pressure on Russia's military-industrial and resource potential.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously referred to such targets as enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex, military logistics, and oil industry facilities that provide the aggressor country with resources to continue the war.

At the end of April, the president stated that the scale and range of Ukraine's means of destruction had increased and the distance of 1,500 kilometers had ceased to be an exclusive indicator. In May, Zelenskyy reported one of the strikes at a distance of about 1,700 kilometers from the state border of Ukraine.

Also in May, Ukrainian forces conducted long-range operations on targets in the Moscow region. Then Zelenskyy noted that individual targets were more than 500 kilometers from Ukraine, and the region itself has a high concentration of Russian air defense systems.

Betting on own weapons

At the same time, Ukraine is expanding production of its own means of destruction. In April, during Armorer's Day, the president showed more than 50 samples of weapons that appeared or were developed during the full-scale war. Among them were long-range and other types of drones, missiles, electronic warfare means, ground robotic systems, and naval unmanned systems.

A separate direction is the development of the Unmanned Systems Forces. According to data cited by Zelenskyy in June, during the first year of the existence of the corresponding grouping, Russian targets of various levels were hit, the total cost of which the Ukrainian side estimates at almost $40 billion.

The Ukrainian leadership expects that the combination of mass production of relatively inexpensive unmanned systems, the development of missile weapons, and increased precision will increase the effect of long-range operations without a proportional increase in costs.

Khmara previously explained this concept as the need to act asymmetrically. At the end of July, he stated that Ukraine is aiming for a ratio where the cost of a strike would be about 2% of the damage inflicted on Russia. In other words, the potential damage to the enemy should be about 50 times higher than Ukraine's costs for conducting such an operation.

Long-range capability considered as part of pressure on Russia

Long-range strikes are viewed by the Ukrainian authorities not as a separate direction, but as one element of overall pressure on Russia together with actions on the front, sanctions, and restricting the Russian military-industrial complex's access to technologies and components.

In July, Zelenskyy stated that Russia should feel constant increasing pressure, including Ukrainian long-range operations, medium-range strikes, and actions of the Defense Forces directly on the front.

Back in the spring, the Ukrainian leadership claimed that long-range capabilities already allow targeting enterprises, logistics facilities, and other elements of Russian military infrastructure significantly farther from the line of combat operations than in previous stages of the war.

At the same time, Khmara's statement that such actions will force Russia to agree to a just peace is an assessment of the Ukrainian side. The minister did not name specific timeframes in which the strengthening of long-range pressure could lead to a change in Moscow's position.

It follows from the statement that the main direction of further development will be exactly scaling: Ukraine intends to produce more of its own weapons, simultaneously increasing their range, precision, and effectiveness of use.

Based on materials from: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Office of the President of Ukraine