India, July 7 -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that the war with Russia will ultimately be won or lost in the air, not on the battlefields of the east, arguing that Kyiv has effectively stalemated Moscow on land and at sea and that the missile-and-drone contest overhead now represents the conflict's decisive front.

Speaking to the Financial Times in his Kyiv office hours after Russia unleashed one of its heaviest bombardments of the war on the capital, Zelenskyy said Ukraine has moved into the air sphere and is already competitive there, framing the coming months as a race to control the skies that will shape the war's outcome more than any ground offensive. The comments came just as Zelenskyy prepared to press alli...