President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will carry out preemptive strikes on facilities Russia uses to expand its war, framing Kyiv’s long-range campaign as a calculated effort to make Moscow pay for continued attacks on Ukrainian cities and occupation of Ukrainian land. “I instructed our intelligence services and military to act preemptively against facilities Russia uses to expand its war effort,” Zelensky said in his evening address.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The statement came as Ukraine intensifies strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, logistics networks and military production sites in an effort to increase pressure on Moscow and force it toward peace talks. The Ukrainian leader framed the campaign as a direct response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and villages, citing strikes over the past day throughout the Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. “This Russian cruelty and aggression is the root cause of the war,” he said. “And it is important that Russians feel that this war exists – and that it exists because of them.” Russian military logistics on temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory have become increasingly difficult, according to Zelensky, who called it a necessary signal to Moscow. “This is the right signal to Russia,” he said. “A signal that Russia will not be able to steal the land of the Ukrainian people – or any other people threatened by Russian ambitions – easily and without punishment.”