New Delhi, Oct. 2 -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his military leaders in September to abandon restrictions that had governed previous Russian air campaigns, citing intelligence intercepted by Kyiv.

Speaking to the Financial Times from a bomb shelter inside a Kyiv school that had just been struck by a Russian jet-powered drone, Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had obtained intercepted communications involving Kremlin officials.

"He said there are no rules now," Zelenskyy told the FT, referring to the intelligence.

According to the Ukrainian president, the alleged change came as Russia intensified its aerial attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, with strike...