War returns to the “native harbor”: Zelensky spoke about a massive strike on Moscow

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced a large-scale operation by Ukrainian forces in the Moscow region, as well as on targets in temporarily occupied territories, including Crimea. According to him, the attack on May 17 was part of a new wave of long-range strikes that are changing not only the military situation but also the perception of the Russian war in the world.

The targets are at a distance of more than 500 kilometers. This is especially important because the Moscow region is considered one of the most protected areas of Russia: it is where political power, command centers, key infrastructure, and a powerful air defense system are concentrated.

For the Israeli audience, this story also has direct meaning. States that face aggression, missile threats, and attacks on civilian infrastructure understand well: war does not remain one-sided indefinitely. When an aggressor destroys foreign cities for years, sooner or later they begin to see the consequences at home.

Zelensky: Ukraine worked on the Moscow region

In a video address on May 17, Volodymyr Zelensky reported that the Ukrainian Defense Forces, the Security Service of Ukraine, and Ukrainian intelligence conducted extensive work on the Moscow region.

He called it a ‘good wave’ of Ukrainian dipstrikes — long-range strikes on targets that were previously considered almost unreachable for Russia.

According to the president, the significance lies not only in the fact of the attack itself but also in the distance. The targets were more than 500 kilometers away, which is a different level of war: Ukraine demonstrates that Russian depth is no longer a guaranteed safe zone.

Why the Moscow region is important

The Moscow region is not an ordinary territory in the Russian military system. The Kremlin protects it more strongly than many border and industrial areas because it is the political center of power.

Zelensky pointed this out directly: Russians ‘protect their power area the most.’ But, according to him, Ukrainian long-range capabilities are already overcoming even such dense defenses.

This changes the psychology of war. Until recently, Moscow tried to present itself as an unreachable center from which orders for strikes on Ukraine could be given without feeling the real cost of aggression. Now this model is being destroyed.

‘Think about your refineries’: the signal to the Kremlin has become tougher

Zelensky also urged the Kremlin to think about its own refineries, oil facilities, and infrastructure, rather than how to ruin the lives of other nations — in Ukraine, Moldova, or any other neighboring country.

This phrase is important not only as a political statement. It shows that Ukraine is trying to shift the focus of the war to where Russia has real vulnerabilities: energy, logistics, military targets, industrial chains, and infrastructure that supports aggression.

NANews —Israel News | Nikk.Agency views such strikes not as a separate episode but as part of a broader logic of war: if a dictatorship exports violence for years, it inevitably faces the fact that its own territory ceases to be a safe rear.

Strikes on Crimea and occupied territories

Zelensky confirmed that during the day, Ukrainian forces also worked on targets in temporarily occupied territory, particularly in Crimea.

Crimea in this war remains not only a symbol of Russian occupation but also a military hub. Logistics, warehouses, aviation infrastructure, air defense systems, and command points that Russia uses against Ukraine pass through the peninsula.

Therefore, strikes on such targets have a dual meaning: they reduce the military potential of the occupiers and remind that temporarily captured territories are not the ‘new normal.’

The war returns to where it was launched

The strongest phrase of Zelensky in this address is that the war ‘predictably returns to its native harbor.’ This expression contains both political irony and a harsh military meaning.

For years, Russia used the idea of a ‘native harbor’ to justify the occupation of foreign territories. Now the Ukrainian president turns this image in the opposite direction: if the war was launched from Moscow, if decisions were made by the Kremlin, if missiles and drones flew over Ukrainian cities by orders of the Russian authorities, then the consequences also begin to return to the Russian center.

For the world, this is a signal: Ukraine no longer appears only as a country defending itself on its territory. It shows the ability to reach targets inside Russia, including those areas that the Kremlin considered most protected.

What is known about the attack on May 17

On the night of May 17, Moscow and the Moscow region, according to Ukrainian material, were subjected to a massive drone attack. Explosions, fires, and the defeat of a number of strategic targets were reported.

Throughout Sunday, May 17, explosions and fires in Moscow and its surroundings continued against the backdrop of the drone attack. This made the strike not a one-time episode but a prolonged operation that exerted significant informational and military pressure on the Russian capital.

For Russia, such events are painful also because they undermine the main propaganda myth: that the war is somewhere far away, that only Ukrainians should pay for it, and that Moscow residents can live away from the consequences of the Kremlin’s decisions.

Now this myth is collapsing.

Ukraine shows that long-range capability has become not just a technical possibility but a political factor. The more targets on Russian territory become achievable, the harder it is for the Kremlin to convince its own population and elites that the war is going according to plan.

For Israel, there is also an important lesson in this. In a modern conflict, the depth of territory no longer guarantees safety if a country itself launches aggression, builds war on missiles, drones, energy blackmail, and strikes on civilian infrastructure. The response may not come immediately, but it comes to where impunity was once felt.