Ukraine Creates Long-Range Strike Command to Target Russia

Published: 11 July 2026 .The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

Ukraine has announced the creation of a new “long-range impact” command within its armed forces, a move President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says is designed to intensify strikes against Russia’s energy, logistics and military infrastructure. The decision comes as Kyiv’s long-range drone campaign has increasingly targeted facilities deep inside Russian territory, while Russian missile attacks on Kyiv injured six people on Saturday.

In a televised address to the nation on Friday night, Zelenskyy said he had signed a decree establishing the special command, which he described as a structure focused on delivering a sustained and strategic impact on Russia in response to the war.

“Today, I signed a decree establishing a special command within the armed forces – a command aimed at a long-range and, in effect, global impact on Russia in response to this war,” Zelenskyy said. “This command must focus 100% of available resources on further reducing Russia’s capacity to wage war.”

The announcement formalises a campaign that Ukrainian officials say has already placed significant pressure on Russia’s energy sector and military supply chains. Over recent months, Ukrainian drones have struck oil refineries, fuel depots and transport infrastructure hundreds of kilometres inside Russia, in what Kyiv describes as a strategy to weaken Moscow’s ability to finance and sustain the war.

On Friday, Ukraine’s general staff reported strikes on the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region, one of the country’s largest refining facilities in the south. Ukrainian officials also said the Ust-Luga oil refining complex in the Leningrad region, along with an oil terminal and depot in the Rostov region, had been hit.

Ukraine’s drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said the campaign had also targeted Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of fuel vessels. According to Brovdi, Ukrainian forces have attacked 10 tankers in the Sea of Azov and damaged almost 50 fuel vessels in the previous five days.

The escalation in Ukrainian strikes has coincided with Russian restrictions on shipping routes linked to the Sea of Azov. Industry sources told Reuters that Russia had temporarily halted shipping through the Don-Azov Channel, a key waterway connecting the Don River with the Sea of Azov.

Russia’s border guards reportedly informed shipping companies that requests for passage through the Kerch Strait, which links the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, would not be accepted from Friday evening. The notice did not specify when the restrictions would be lifted.

The disruption is significant because up to one-quarter of Russia’s wheat exports are estimated to pass through the Sea of Azov. Any prolonged interruption to shipping routes could have implications for Russian export revenues and global grain markets.

While Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russian infrastructure, Russia has continued large-scale attacks on Ukrainian cities. On Saturday, Russian missile strikes on Kyiv wounded six people, according to Ukrainian officials.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said Russia was “attacking the capital with missiles” and urged residents to seek shelter. He later confirmed that six people had been injured, with three treated in hospital and three receiving treatment at the scene.

The attack on Kyiv came amid a broader escalation of Russian strikes across Ukraine. In the eastern frontline city of Kramatorsk, Russian forces dropped seven aerial bombs on Friday, killing four people, including a teenager, according to regional governor Vadym Filashkin. At least nine others were injured, and residential buildings, shops and private homes were damaged.

The military escalation is unfolding alongside renewed diplomatic and political pressure on Russia. US Senator Lindsey Graham, visiting Kyiv on Friday, said China could play a decisive role in pushing Moscow towards peace talks.

“The road to ending this war, the road to peace, passes through Beijing more than it does Washington, Kyiv, or Moscow,” Graham said. “China has an oversized influence. I’d like them to use their influence for the good of the world.”

Graham met Zelenskyy in Kyiv, where they discussed Ukraine’s urgent air defence needs and proposed sanctions legislation targeting Russia. Graham and three other US senators later announced that they had reached agreement with the Trump administration on updated sanctions legislation.

The proposed bill would impose sanctions on countries continuing to do business with Russia, including buyers of Russian energy exports, in an effort to increase pressure on Moscow over its failure to negotiate a peace settlement with Ukraine.

“We are very pleased with this significant progress and expect to roll out the legislation very soon,” senators Richard Blumenthal, Lindsey Graham, Jeanne Shaheen and Roger Wicker said in a joint statement.

Graham added that the White House had agreed to support the revised sanctions bill, saying: “It means it’s going to become law.”

The sanctions push comes as Western governments continue to debate how to maintain pressure on Russia while supporting Ukraine’s military and economic resilience. Kyiv has repeatedly called for stronger sanctions on Russian energy exports, arguing that oil and gas revenues remain a key source of funding for Moscow’s war effort.

At the same time, Ukraine is also facing scrutiny over domestic governance and corruption. On Friday, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau formally designated a former official at the state nuclear company Energoatom as a suspect in what authorities describe as the country’s largest wartime corruption case in the energy sector.

The unnamed former official, responsible for the physical protection and security of Energoatom facilities, is suspected of laundering more than 30 million hryvnias, or approximately $674,000, between 2023 and 2025.

The so-called “Midas case” involves allegations of a $100 million kickback scheme at Energoatom and has implicated figures close to President Zelenskyy. The investigation has cast a shadow over Ukraine’s government at a time when Kyiv is seeking to demonstrate to Western allies that it can tackle high-level corruption while continuing to wage war against Russia.

As the conflict enters its 1,599th day, Ukraine’s creation of the long-range impact command signals a determination to expand the war’s reach beyond the front lines and target the economic and logistical foundations of Russia’s military campaign. At the same time, Russia’s continued missile and aerial bomb attacks on Ukrainian cities underscore the ongoing danger faced by civilians across the country.