Forty days after Zelensky launched his ‘influence operation’ against Russia, what did it achieve?

Forty days ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the Security Service of Ukraine to launch what he called an influence operation meant to push Russia toward ending the war. Since then, Meduza reports, Ukraine has struck at least twenty Wildberries warehouses, hit twenty-five oil refineries and other energy facilities, knocking out a third of Russia's refining capacity, and carried out around two hundred attacks on tankers and cargo ships in the Black and Azov seas. Russia answered with its heaviest bombardment yet, launching three hundred eighty-one missiles at Ukraine in July alone, according to Ukrainian data. No peace talks have materialized, and Kyiv's presidential office says the campaign will continue regardless of the forty-day timeline.

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