President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will press ahead with its battlefield aim of fully capturing four Ukrainian regions, rejecting what he said was a new proposal by Ukraine to rein in the more than four-year-old war.
Mr Putin added Russia needed to boost its air defence capacity to counter intensified Ukrainian drone attacks aimed mainly at its oil industry, and emphasised Russia was coping well in tackling fuel supply problems linked to the Ukrainian strikes.
He acknowledged at a meeting in the Kremlin with government ministers and other officials that the strikes had triggered fuel shortages in various Russian regions, but the government was dealing with them.
Ukrainian drones have even struck an oil refinery in Moscow in recent weeks. (Reuters)
In a television interview, the president said that Ukraine had proposed a mutual halt to long-range strikes as a step towards peace.
But Moscow saw it as a means to relieve pressure on Kyiv’s forces along the 1,250-kilometre front line and would not be distracted by it.
“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,” he 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.“
The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr Putin’s remarks.
Russian missiles have struck Kyiv as recently as June 28. (AP: Ukrainian Emergency Service)
Mr Zelenskyy wrote an open letter to Mr Putin this month, proposing a face-to-face meeting, which the Russian leader has rejected.
In the television interview, Mr Putin said Ukrainian attacks were “aimed at diverting our attention and forces from achieving the main objectives: the complete liberation of Donbas and Novorossiya,” a reference to the two regions of the Donbas and the adjacent regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Mr Putin has long insisted that Ukraine abandon its remaining positions in the Donetsk region in Donbas as a key condition of any peace deal.
Seven months after its 2022 invasion, Russia annexed the four regions: the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Donbas, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which it only partly controls.
Crimea has come under fire as Ukrainian strikes target infrastructure supplying the annexed Ukrainian territory. (Reuters)
Putin acknowledges fuel shortages as oil targeted
Mr Putin said a task force was working to ensure sufficient quantities of fuel were provided throughout the country, and called for measures to ensure supplies for the farm sector, and said a ban on diesel exports was under consideration.
The president said problems for drivers and businesses “persist”, and there were still queues at gas stations across Russia.
“We have to reduce to a minimum the impact of terrorist attacks on our civilian targets and infrastructure,” he said
Firefighters work at the site of a Russian missile and drone strike in the Poltava region of Ukraine. (Reuters: State Emergency Service of Ukraine)
Ukraine has stepped up medium and long-range attacks on industrial targets in Russia and Russian-controlled territories inside Ukraine, focusing mainly on the oil sector.
Mr Putin said gasoline reserves were being used and now stood at 1.7 million metric tons, and July production levels should exceed those recorded in June.
Vladimir Putin says Ukraine has proposed a mutual halt to long-range strikes as a step towards peace. (Reuters: Anatolii Stepanov)
A task force on fuel supplies was working around the clock, Mr Putin said, adding the situation required “systemic measures that match the scale of current challenges” to increase supply and keep prices at a reasonable level.
“We need to make every effort to ensure that all seasonal fuel supply schedules are maintained for agro-industrial enterprises, because the harvest depends on it,”
he said.
Ukrainian drone attacks
Addressing Ukraine’s medium- and long-range drone campaign, the Russian leader said: “The first task is to quickly and significantly ramp up production of those air defence systems that are most needed.
“All the strikes, wherever they hit our infrastructure, absolutely do not affect the situation on the front, on the line of combat contact,” he said.
Mr Putin said Russia was expecting a resumption of US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war and a new visit to Moscow by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner once the “hot phase” of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran was resolved.
Despite Ukrainian strikes reaching deep within Russia, Vladimir Putin says attacks on oil infrastructure did not affect the situation on the front lines. (Reuters)
He appeared to agree with comments last week by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that no formal agreement had been reached at Mr Putin’s talks in Alaska last year with US President Donald Trump, although US proposals had been discussed.
“Nobody signed anything, but we talked about certain possibilities for ending the conflict in Ukraine,” Mr Putin said.
He also suggested that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with whom he held two days of talks this week, could assist with peace talks, but made no reference to Ukraine’s allegations that Russia was trying to involve Belarus further in the conflict.
Belarus allowed its territory to be used to launch Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but Lukashenko has pledged to send no forces into combat.
Reuters
