At UN headquarters, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj said Ukraine would stop striking Russian energy facilities if Moscow stopped targeting Ukraine’s energy systems. He said the condition covered electricity, heating and water supplies.
Instead, Zelenskyj announced plans to double attacks on Russian oil refineries, presenting them as a response to Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that it would carry out further attacks on Kyiv and other regions because of Zelenskyj’s statements.
Zelenskyj has described the Russian campaign as a “new doctrine” intended to push people out of Kyiv and other cities. In an interview with Reuters, he said: “We have seen documents, and we know that they let them attack infrastructure and logistics, and especially they let them attack roads, schools and hospitals in cities and villages to pressure people to leave the capital and different cities. That is the goal of the operation.”
Ukraine has greatly expanded its own attacks on Russia’s oil industry, using long-range drones against refineries and other energy sites as far as 3,000km from the Ukrainian border. Reuters has reported that Ukraine has doubled its refinery attacks this year.
Ukrainian forces struck refineries in Russia’s Ryazan region, Perm region and Tatarstan on 7 September. Ukraine’s General Staff also said its forces had hit the Slavyansk refinery in Krasnodar and the TANEKO refinery in Tatarstan.
A June strike damaged a primary refining unit at the Moscow region’s largest fuel supplier, temporarily halting operations at a unit responsible for more than half of the plant’s capacity. On 20 September, an attack forced the Moscow oil refinery to stop processing crude. The refinery had processed about 230,000 barrels of crude a day in 2024.
President Vladimir Putin acknowledged this month that Moscow had initially underestimated the danger to its refineries because it assumed civilian facilities would not be targeted. He said Russia still had about 10% of its damaged refinery capacity left to repair.
Donald Trump has asked Ukraine to stop hitting Russian diesel refineries in particular. On Monday, he said both sides had agreed to halt attacks on energy infrastructure, writing on Truth Social: “Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!”
Trump said last week that the countries had agreed to stop attacking each other’s energy facilities, though strikes resumed almost immediately. Zelenskyj said, “Ukraine is not certain that Russia is willing to stick to any agreement.”
Zelenskyj said Russia knew that an attack on Ukraine’s energy system would bring a response against Russian targets. He said Ukraine would try to respond appropriately if Russian strikes caused blackouts.
Analysts say Russia is not interested in an energy ceasefire plan. Moscow has been known to intensify attacks on energy facilities during the winter season.
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