Ukraine has claimed one of its most consequential strikes against Russian forces behind the front line, with President Volodymyr Zelensky announcing on Thursday that a special operation by the SBU’s Alpha unit had destroyed a headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the occupied part of the Kherson region. In a video released on X, multiple drones are seen slamming into a complex of buildings in the village of Genicheska Hirka. Zelensky said the attack had killed or wounded approximately 100 Russian personnel and also knocked out a Pantsir-S1 air defence system, a piece of equipment valued at over €15 million. The claim could not be independently verified, and Moscow has not commented.

The operation appears designed to carry both operational and symbolic weight. The FSB, the domestic security service and direct successor to the Soviet KGB, is an institution intimately associated with Vladimir Putin, who began his career in its predecessor. By targeting its regional coordination centre, Kyiv is signalling that no Russian rear area is safe from its reach. “The Russians must feel the need to end this war,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukrainian sanctions with medium- and long-range missiles would continue to bite. Viewed from Kyiv, the strike also serves to offset Russia’s own shows of strength: this week Moscow and Minsk concluded three days of joint exercises involving launches of intercontinental and hypersonic missiles, including the new Zircon.

The scale of the claimed casualties – around 100 – is notable but must be placed in context. Every day Ukraine reports inflicting well over 1,000 killed or wounded on Russian forces along the entire front. Zelensky’s decision to highlight this particular operation underscores its psychological and propaganda value. Separately, Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery deep inside Russia, some 800 kilometres from the border, according to one report, though this was not part of the same operation. The sustained campaign against strategic assets behind the lines, using both drones and longer-range missiles such as the FP-5 Flamingo, is a deliberate Ukrainian strategy to erode Russia’s ability to sustain its invasion.

The lack of any Russian acknowledgment of the strike fits a pattern of Kremlin silence on embarrassing battlefield reverses. Meanwhile, diplomatic manoeuvring continues in Europe. In Berlin, Friedrich Merz, the German opposition leader and likely next chancellor, proposed a “partial” membership for Ukraine in the European Union, a suggestion that Kyiv swiftly rejected as relegating the country to second-class status. As the war grinds into its fourth year, Ukraine’s ability to hit high-value targets in occupied territory – and even inside Russia – is likely to remain a central pillar of its strategy, aimed at compelling the Kremlin to reconsider its calculus.