Zelensky Says Ukrainian Drones Will Keep Russian Airspace Unsafe as Moscow Widens Aid to Damaged Businesses

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned airlines on Tuesday that his country's drones would make Russian airspace unsafe for the duration of the war, the South China Morning Post reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the warning state terrorism. Both governments have intensified long-range attacks, and the targets have moved steadily away from the front line.

Moscow's response has been fiscal as much as military. Denis Manturov, a first deputy prime minister, said the Russian Industry Ministry is ready to expand support for businesses damaged by Ukrainian attacks, according to TASS, and that the government continues to monitor the recovery effort at online marketplace warehouses that were hit. State compensation for war damage inside Russia has become a recurring budget item rather than an emergency measure.

Speaking after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, Putin said he wants to end the conflict and is open to talks, The Hindu reported. In the same remarks he acknowledged that Ukrainian attacks inside Russia have inflicted real damage and said drones present a particular difficulty. That admission, from a government that has generally minimised the effect of such strikes, is the most concrete confirmation yet that the campaign is imposing measurable cost.

The economic logic runs through insurance and logistics rather than through territory. When warehouses, refineries and airports deep inside a country become plausible targets, the cost of moving and storing goods rises across the whole economy, and it rises through premiums and rerouting long before anything is actually destroyed.