Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that Ukraine will not attack civilian Russian targets. However, he confirmed that Kyiv will respond to intensified Russian strikes by targeting oil refineries.

Zelenskiy noted that Russia's attacks on Ukrainian cities occur at a time when Moscow cannot achieve its goals on the battlefield. This strategic shift aims to counter hybrid attacks on Europe, which he said are designed to divide and reduce support for Ukraine.

Frontline status and operations

The Ukrainian leader reported that the situation on the eastern Donetsk front has stabilised. He described Operation 'Vivaldi' as successful and noted that it remains underway.

Strategic context

The decision to focus on energy infrastructure reflects a broader response to military pressures. Zelenskiy linked the targeting of refineries directly to the intensification of Russian strikes on civilian areas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Wednesday that artificial intelligence could begin making battlefield decisions as early as 2027. He addressed the United Nations General Assembly, urging global leaders to achieve peace before autonomous weapons systems outpace diplomatic efforts.

Ukraine’s current AI integration in combat

Zelenskyy’s warning highlights the rapid transition of AI from digital tools to physical combat systems. Ukraine is already deploying these technologies extensively. The country’s Defense Ministry reports that its systems analyze more than 100,000 drone video streams each month and identify about 70% of enemy targets in real time.

The Ukrainian Defence AI Centre aims to connect weapons and battlefield data into a unified system while maintaining human oversight. This infrastructure relies on the DELTA combat platform, which includes Avengers AI Labs. These labs utilize 5 million annotated battlefield images to train models.

International partnerships and private sector involvement

The acceleration of military AI is supported by international collaboration and private technology firms.

Reuters reported that Russia’s faster jet-powered Shahed drones are straining Ukrainian air defenses. The interception rate for these newer variants has dropped to about 60%, down from roughly 90% for older models.

Global concerns over autonomous control

Zelenskyy’s remarks coincided with warnings from tech executives to the UN Security Council. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman urged international safeguards as AI systems become more capable. Their primary concern focuses on retaining human control over life-and-death decisions.

What the numbers show

The data reveals a critical divergence between defensive capability and offensive speed. While Ukraine’s AI identifies 70% of targets in real time, the physical interception success rate for advanced Russian drones has fallen to 60%. This gap suggests that while software detection improves, hardware limitations are struggling to keep pace with faster aerial threats. The reliance on external partners like Palantir and Applied Intuition underscores the dependency on private sector innovation for national security infrastructure.