Zelenskiy touts new 'drone missile', calls Putin 'sick old man'

By Tom Balmforth and Olena Harmash

kyiv (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday touted a new Ukrainian “missile drone” that he said would bring war back to Russia and derided Vladimir Putin as “the sick old man from Red Square”.

As Ukraine marked 33 years of post-Soviet independence, Zelenskiy said the new weapon, Palianytsia, was faster and more powerful than the domestically-made drones kyiv has so far used to retaliate against Russia, striking its oil refineries and military airfields.

“Our enemy will know what method of retaliation the Ukrainians will use. It will be valid, symmetrical and long-range,” he said.

Zelenskiy said the new class of Ukrainian weapons was used in a successful strike on a target in Russia, but did not specify where.

He used mocking language to describe the 71-year-old Russian president and the nuclear rhetoric emanating from Moscow.

“A sick old man from Red Square who constantly threatens everyone with the red button will not dictate any of his red lines to us,” he said in a video on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia, which has attacked Ukraine with thousands of missiles and drones since invading it in February 2022, has called Ukrainian drone attacks terrorism. Moscow's troops are advancing in eastern Ukraine, occupying 18% of the country.

Zelenskiy has pressured Kiev's allies to allow him to use Western weapons deeper into Russian territory, for example to strike airbases used by Russian warplanes that pound Ukraine with missiles and gliding bombs.

“I want to emphasize once again that our new decisions on arms, including Palyanytsia, are our realistic way of acting while some of our partners are unfortunately delaying their decisions,” Zelenskiy said at a press conference.

Ukrainians say that the word “Palianytsia”, a type of Ukrainian bread, is too difficult for Russians to pronounce and it was used – sometimes humorously – during the war as a way to distinguish between Ukrainians and Russians.

“It will be very difficult for Russia, difficult even to say exactly what hit it,” Zelenskiy said of the drone's missile.

In a decree, Zelenskiy promoted his commander-in-chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, to the rank of general, a tacit gesture of praise after Ukraine's lightning cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk region launched on August 6.

Seen by Russia as an escalation and a major provocation, the Ukrainian incursion captured more than 90 towns in the Kursk region, according to kyiv, the largest invasion of Russia since World War II.

At a joint news conference with the Polish and Lithuanian leaders, Zelenskiy told reporters that the operation was partly a preemptive measure aimed at stopping Russian plans to capture the northern city of Sumy.

Besides capturing prisoners of war and creating a “buffer zone,” Zelenskiy said the operation had other goals that he could not disclose publicly.

Polish President Andrzej Duda confirmed that Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks donated to kyiv by Warsaw are taking part in the fighting in the Kursk region.

“We are touched to see how the PT-91 Twardy tanks, donated by Poland (to Ukraine) more than a year ago, are today defending Ukraine on the battlefields, fighting in the Kursk region,” he said.

Russia has strongly condemned the use of Western weapons in the incursion, which Putin said will receive a “worthy response.”

Independence Day has taken on increased significance for Ukrainians since the invasion, sparking widespread patriotic sentiment.

This year, the holiday came after the US and German embassies issued warnings about an increased risk of Russian missile and drone attacks across the country.

No major airstrikes had been reported as of 22:00 local time, but air raid sirens sounded at least twice in kyiv in the afternoon and evening.

To mark the date, Zelenskiy ratified the Rome Statute, paving the way for Ukraine to join the International Criminal Court, one of several steps needed to join the European Union, which kyiv considers a priority.

He also signed a law banning the activities of religious groups linked to Russia, creating a legal instrument allowing the government to ban a branch of the Orthodox Church deemed to be linked to Russia.

Ukraine and Russia also announced that they had each secured the release of 115 prisoners of war in an exchange. The Russian Defense Ministry said its freed soldiers were captured during the Ukrainian attack in the Kursk region.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash and Tom Balmforth, editing by Hugh Lawson)