In late June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Kyiv was launching a 40-day "influence operation" against Russia, to be carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Zelensky did not specify what the operation would involve, but said its goal was "to induce the aggressor state to end the war."
The 40-day period has now expired. According to Meduza, during that time Ukraine attacked at least 20 Wildberries warehouses, at least 25 oil refineries and other oil and gas infrastructure facilities — taking a third of Russia's refining capacity offline. In addition, at least 200 attacks were carried out on tankers and cargo ships in the Black and Azov seas.
Russia responded by intensifying ballistic missile strikes on Ukraine. In July, according to Ukrainian data, 381 missiles were launched — more than in any single month since the start of the war.
Peace talks did not begin during those 40 days. Publicly, the Kremlin continues to insist that the "goals of the special military operation" will be achieved. The Ukrainian president's office says the "influence operation" will continue and urges against fixating on symbolic deadlines: "Don't cling to all these arguments: 40, 50, 100, 15 days. The main thing is the result."
Sources differ in their assessments of the operation's outcome. The outlet Ekho calls the campaign "quite visible and effective," noting that the SBU struck more than 100 significant targets deep behind enemy lines. Among the key successes, the outlet says, were strikes on three Lukoil refineries in Perm, Volgograd and Nizhny Novgorod, a Tu-95 strategic bomber and two Su-35 fighters at airfields, as well as elements of Russian air defense in the Rostov region. TV Rain, for its part, writes that over the 40 days the Russian economy experienced "the strongest shock" and that Ukraine managed to do what sanctions could not.