How Ukraine’s 40-day summer drone campaign to end the war with Russia backfired

Published September 26, 2026 4:44pm ET | Updated September 26, 2026 4:44pm ET



On June 25, at the height of Ukraine’s long-range drone success, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had approved a 40-day plan to compel Moscow to end the war through an intensified strike campaign.

As part of the surge, Ukraine chose two new strategic targets to ramp up pressure on the Russian populace: Wildberries warehouses, Russia’s equivalent to Amazon, and fuel ships supplying Crimea. Kyiv argued the warehouses held dual-use goods, and that hitting them would impose an immediate cost on ordinary Russians, who would pressure the Kremlin to end the war. The shipping strikes aimed to strangle Crimea into an energy and supply crisis.

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