Ukraine's intelligence services have obtained documents showing that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had issued a "new doctrine" of military attacks on a much broader range of civilian targets ahead of this winter, Zelenskiy said.
"We saw documents and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure, logistics, and especially to attack in the cities, in the villages, everywhere, roads, schools, hospitals," Zelenskiy told Reuters in an interview. "To pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities: this is the goal of the operation."
Driving the shift in policy, Zelenskiy said, was Putin's desire to appear strong at a time when his military was losing ground in a key frontline region and sustaining higher levels of casualties.
The Kremlin was not available to comment on Saturday. But in a statement urging foreign nationals to leave Kyiv, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow would continue to systematically hit targets in what it said were retaliatory strikes for Ukrainian attacks on Russia in recent months.
Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.
Zelenskiy said a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive, code-named "Vivaldi", had recaptured around 140 sq km of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and was still ongoing. Russia has said it must control Donbas in its entirety as a condition for any peace deal.
In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump's administration has sought to revive talks to end the four-year-old conflict – Europe's bloodiest since World War Two.
The US leader last month urged Ukraine to refrain from hitting Russian oil installations, saying that was sending global diesel prices surging.
But Zelenskiy said he had received no indications from Russia that Putin was interested in peace talks, or discussing a ceasefire on energy infrastructure.
Over the past week, the Ukrainian capital has come under persistent attack by Russian drones and missiles targeting energy and telecoms assets, road and rail infrastructure. For the first time, Russia has targeted the bridges across the Dnipro river connecting east and west Kyiv.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine would react to the change in tactics by Moscow, but would not target civilian infrastructure indiscriminately.
After the Trump administration invited Putin to attend a G20 summit in Miami in December and discussed business deals with Russian envoys, Zelenskiy urged Washington not to normalise relations with Russia before ensuring a return to peace.
Ukrainian officials warn that Russia has stockpiled hundreds of ballistic missiles ahead of an expected winter onslaught against electricity and water infrastructure. Last winter, the worst of the war, Russian strikes left swathes of the country without electricity and heating for days at a time.
Zelenskiy said a recent spate of Russian drone incursions and hybrid attacks in Europe were an effort to intimidate European populations and to undermine support for Ukraine.
Russia says such accusations are baseless and the result of anti-Russian hysteria.
with DPA
