The parts of Russia that once felt too far away to worry about are now on Ukraine's strike map, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after a meeting with his top military commanders on 26 July. Kyiv will press ahead with its long-range campaign and has updated which sites to hit first, he added. The commanders did not reveal the targets themselves.

Kyiv's commanders sign off on the next phase

Zelenskyy convened Ukraine's military leadership to review the long-range strikes. He left with two decisions—keep the operations going and refresh the priority list. 

Photos the President posted showed new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mykhailo Drapatyi, acting Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara and Chief of the General Staff Ihor Skybiuk among those at the table. Kyiv chose the new priorities by one measure: how much each site damages Russia's ability to keep waging the war.

Zelenskyy once again called the effort Ukraine's plan of "long-range sanctions," carried out along set priorities.

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Russia's depth stops being an advantage

Ukrainian strike distances now run past 3,000 km, Zelenskyy noted, saying Kyiv keeps building the range to reach further. For years, Russia's size kept its factories and fuel plants out of harm's way. 

"The strategic depth of the rear, which for a long time was a Russian advantage, is now becoming a particular problem for Russia's political and military leadership," he said. 

Most of Russia's air defense, he noted, sits bunched around Moscow, state residences, the Kerch Strait Bridge and St. Petersburg. Ukrainian drones, he added, have shown they can reach targets in the Urals, in Siberia and in other lands far from the capital.

What Ukraine has hit—and what it still targets

Since the plan began this year, Ukraine has run more than a thousand fire missions, striking oil sites, critical military production and key nodes of Russian logistics, Zelenskyy said. Several parallel deep- and mid-range campaigns run at once. They target:

• oil and fuel sites in Russia and occupied territories
• military factories
• ships in the Azov and Black seas
• the power grid in occupied Crimea
• air defense, logistics and military bases across the occupied areas
• Wildberries, a Russian Amazon-style retailer that also moves non-lethal military gear and drone components

Zelenskyy did not name the specific new targets. Neither has he reiterated all the well-known ones.

The goal is a push toward talks

The point of all this pressure, Zelenskyy said, is to force Russia toward negotiations. He wants the strikes to make weapons components harder to build, pile up oil and economic losses, and, in his words, bring the war back to its "home harbor." Ukraine has handed Russia's leadership everything it needs to end the war on decent terms, he said, and its partners know what that takes. 

"Our precision is working effectively to create conditions for real diplomacy," Zelenskyy said.

Recent long-range hits

Several notable long-range strikes occurred in the days before the meeting. On 24 July, an FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile hit the Avitek military plant in Kirov, about 1,200 km from Ukraine. The next day, drones hit the Tyumen oil refinery some 2,000 km out and set fire to a Wildberries warehouse in Yekaterinburg roughly 1,800 km away.

Ukraine's new military command is now complete, and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy says its first job is to change the army. The new leadership is preparing a modernization of the Defense Forces that must proceed in coordination and without easing pressure on the enemy, the president said in his evening address.

Zelenskyy dismissed Oleksandr Syrskyi as commander-in-chief on 21 July after six days of protests and named Mykhailo Drapatyi in his place. On 22 July, he appointed Major General Ihor Skybiuk as Chief of the General Staff, replacing Andrii Hnatov, per Interfax Ukraine. 

"The guys are combat-experienced. The troops know them, Drapatyi, Khmara, Skybiuk," Zelenskyy said, naming the new commander-in-chief, Acting Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara, and the new General Staff chief.

Zelenskyy warns against transition gap

The Ukrainian leader said the next step is to prepare the modernization of the Defense Forces in such a way that denies Russian forces any chance to exploit the transitional period.

"It is important that everything goes absolutely coordinated, and that the Russians get no crack and no opportunity," Zelenskyy said.

Pressure on Russia must only grow, he added, listing long-range strikes, mid-strikes, partners' sanctions, and the strengthening of Ukrainian positions at the front. That list matches the program that Acting Defense Minister Khmara outlined after his meeting with Drapatyi, which is built on deep-strike, middle-strike, and ground robotic systems.

President thanks society and gives tasks to new command

Zelenskyy thanked military personnel and civilians for their trust in the new command and called for them to turn that trust into additional motivation for the Defense Forces.

"It is important that the guys are strong, that they justify the trust society has now demonstrated. We are giving all the tools," he said.

The trust he referenced is measurable and uneven. A Rating Group poll conducted on 20 and 21 July found 55% of Ukrainians backed Syrskyi's removal, while 72% also opposed Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov's dismissal and 5% supported it, sparking the protests. The command changes have satisfied the first number. The second remains the open question of the reshuffle, and Zelenskyy has still made no commitment on Fedorov's return.