Kremlin officials 'will have to know where the bomb shelters are,' Zelensky says
Kremlin officials will need to "know where the bomb shelters are," President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, after he suggested the U.S. may give Ukraine new long-range weapons.
Speaking in an interview with Axios published on Sept. 25, Zelensky said Kyiv would not target civilians because "we are not terrorists," but noted that centers of power, including the Kremlin, could be legitimate targets.
"They have to know where the bomb shelters are," Zelensky said of Kremlin officials. "They have to know that we in Ukraine will answer. If they attack us, we will answer them."
Zelensky said main targets would include energy infrastructure and weapons production facilities, adding that a new U.S. weapons system could force Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate.
According to Zelensky, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed support for such strikes, saying, "We will work on it."
The announcement comes after Trump's unexpected reversal on the war, declaring earlier that Kyiv could retake all Russian-occupied territories after meeting the Ukrainian president.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, known for provocative outbursts, responded by threatening that Russia would use weapons "that no bomb shelter can protect against."
"Americans should remember this," Medvedev, Russian Security Council deputy chairman, added.
The remarks come over two years after a May 2023 incident, when two drones reportedly targeted Putin's Kremlin residence, an attack Russia blamed on Ukraine but Kyiv never confirmed.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has regularly used long-range drones to target military infrastructure and supply hubs situated deep within Russia, far from the front lines.
Zelensky's remarks also follow Trump's summit with Putin in Alaska last month, where the U.S. president pledged to arrange direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow.
Those efforts stalled when Putin invited Zelensky to Moscow, a proposal Kyiv rejected as impossible while Russian missiles continue to strike Ukrainian cities.
Trump has tied potential new sanctions on Moscow — intended to pressure it into meaningful talks — to tougher European measures, criticizing the EU for continuing to import Russian energy.
Trump said on Sept. 23 that the U.S. will "continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them," as his administration begins sending arms to Kyiv under a new NATO-backed deal.
The first aid package, approved Sept. 16, included Patriot and HIMARS missiles
