Russia attacked Ukraine with nearly 500 drones and missiles in a single day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Mr Zelenskyy said in a statement on X on Saturday that Russia continues to target Ukraine’s economy and destroy facilities that help people withstand conditions of war. 

“Russian drone attacks continue throughout the day today, and “shaheds” are still in the sky right now. Nearly 500 attack drones have already been launched since morning,” he said. 

Mr Zelenskyy said Russia has expanded the war from the front lines, where it cannot succeed, into the economy. 

He said, “The tactics are as primitive as they get – destroying every facility that can help people withstand the conditions of war.

“The Russians are burning warehouses with food and gas stations, pharmaceutical facilities and ordinary passenger trains, residential buildings and civilian businesses.

“Just in the past few days, they have struck a steel plant owned by an Indian business, an American company that produced sunflower oil, and a Polish company that manufactured plumbing fixtures.” 

He added that Russian attacks have also targeted truck parking lots, ports, shopping malls, and energy infrastructure.

According to Mr Zelenskyy, Russia wants to kill the Ukrainian economy and, through that, break the country’s resistance. 

“Russian businesses that pay taxes into the war budget, and Russian oligarchs without whom Putin’s system is impossible to imagine, must feel that there is no place in the world where they can live in peace and quiet for as long as this war continues,” he said.