Ukrainian President Zelensky stated that Putin aims to force Kyiv residents to abandon the capital, linking this to an escalation of Russian strikes on Kyiv ahead of US midterm elections. Zelensky visited a school recently damaged by a Russian attack.

Zelensky recalled that forcing civilians to leave the capital was a goal for Russia at the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022, aiming to demonstrate the absence of a capital and thus a country.