Zelenskyy says Russia's losing ground fast—and he's got the drone footage to prove it
Zelenskyy tells the Guardian Ukraine's turning the tide with drone strikes on Russian targets. St Petersburg's burning, Crimea's in chaos, and he's ready to share tactics.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy walked into a London office last week with the kind of energy you don't expect from a guy whose country's been at war for over four years. He wasn't doom-scrolling or checking casualty reports. He was actually upbeat.
The Ukrainian president told the Guardian that things have genuinely shifted. Not massively—he's careful about that. "We can't say Russia is losing this war," he said. "But we can say they are losing the initiative each day, day by day." And honestly? After nearly two and a half years of grinding stalemate, that's saying something.
The proof is sitting in satellite photos. Over the past week alone, long-range Ukrainian drones have torched St Petersburg—Putin's home city—setting oil terminals ablaze and sending black smoke rolling across the Neva. Crimea got hit too. The peninsula Russia grabbed in 2014 is now dealing with a fuel crisis, with burning tankers littering supply routes and the military scrambling to resupply.
Zelenskyy's clearly aware he's onto something. He didn't just come to London to vent about Putin's lies (though he did plenty of that). He came ready to talk about sharing Ukraine's drone-warfare playbook with the West. Western militaries have been watching how Kyiv's adapted to this kind of fight—improvised drones, rapid iteration, hitting targets nobody thought reachable. It's become a masterclass in asymmetric warfare, and Zelenskyy wants allies learning from it.
The conversation also touched on Trump—always a wild card in these discussions—and King Charles, which feels like the kind of diplomatic small talk that actually matters when you're trying to hold together a coalition. But the real story is the shift in momentum. For the first time in months, Kyiv isn't just surviving. It's starting to dictate terms.
Whether this momentum holds depends on what happens next. Supply lines, Western support, winter. All the usual threats. But sitting across from Zelenskyy, you could tell he believes the corner's been turned. "They are isolated," he said about Russia. "They are alone." That's not desperation talking. That's a guy who thinks his side might actually win this thing.
