Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the country is facing fuel shortages following sustained Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries and infrastructure, while vowing that Russia would press ahead with its battlefield campaign regardless of any Ukrainian proposals to scale back the fighting, .
"As for strikes against critical infrastructure in general, and energy infrastructure in particular, of course these attacks on our infrastructure facilities create problems, that's obvious," Putin said in an interview published by the Kremlin on Sunday. "Right now we're observing a certain shortage, but it's not critical."
Putin said the priority now was to ramp up Russia's air defense capacity and secure fuel supplies, particularly to Crimea, which has faced acute shortages amid the drone campaign.
Ukraine's strikes have hit refineries and storage facilities across Russia in recent weeks, including in the Krasnodar and Yaroslavl regions, triggering fuel rationing and long lines at gas stations in numerous Russian regions.
Putin said Ukraine had proposed halting long-range strikes as a step toward peace, but argued Moscow viewed the offer as an attempt to ease pressure on Ukrainian forces along the roughly 1,250-kilometer front line.
"It is clear why this proposal is being made, because our counter-strikes deep into Ukrainian territory are much stronger, have greater impact and are, frankly, more destructive," Putin said.
"Given their catastrophic shortage of personnel, the Ukrainian Armed Forces apparently believe this could be their salvation. But saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans," he added.
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He reiterated that Russia's objective remains the full capture of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, regions Moscow annexed in 2022 but does not fully control, and rejected any settlement that does not meet this goal.
On diplomacy, Putin said Russia expects renewed engagement from US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner once Washington's involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict eases. He also suggested Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko could play a role in facilitating peace talks, days after holding two days of discussions with him.
Putin added that no formal agreement was reached during his talks with US President Donald Trump in Alaska last year, though the two sides discussed possible terms for ending the war. "Nobody signed anything, but we talked about certain possibilities for ending the conflict in Ukraine," he said.
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