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Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged for the first time on Sunday that his country was facing a “certain deficit” of fuel, as Ukraine continues to strike Russian energy infrastructure, setting fire to yet another major oil refinery in the south
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According to regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev, the falling debris killed one person in Sloviansk and wounded another in a nearby village, in eastern occupied Crimea,
Processing close to 4 million tons of crude per year, the facility is one of southern Russia’s major refineries and a key source of petroleum products for export through Russia’s Black Sea ports, including fuel oil, naphtha, and marine fuel.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy has claimed that another Russian refinery, in the Yaroslavl region around 700 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, was also hit during the nighttime strikes. However, there were no immediate reports from Russian authorities about the strike.
Amid the latest strikes, Putin has vowed to strengthen the protection of oil facilities and boost fuel output, as Moscow feels the consequences of the prolonged war.
Speaking at a meeting with officials that focused on the fuel situation, Putin admitted that the country was “going through a difficult period,” but insisted that Moscow would “honour all its social obligations.”
Shortly after, he told state TV that the country’s arms industries will quickly ramp up production of air defence systems to fend off Ukrainian attacks.
Claiming the issues that arise are not critical, Putin also said that Russia will import more fuel and speed up repair works at oil facilities to end the “temporary deficit.”
Putin specifically pledged to quickly address fuel shortages in Crimea, saying that fuel deliveries to the Black Sea peninsula by land and sea will increase and voicing confidence that “this task will be accomplished.”
‘Refineries targeted to split society’
Speaking to a Russian state TV reporter, Putin described the Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries as an attempt to “cause a split in Russian society and force Russia to halt, even if only briefly, the advance of our troops along the line of contact, and create conditions for launching a negotiation process on terms advantageous to our adversary.”
“We will not give them that chance,” Putin said, adding that “strikes on our infrastructure, wherever they are directed, have absolutely no effect on the situation at the front, on the line of contact.”
Putin revealed for the first time that Ukraine had proposed a mutual halt on deep strikes behind enemy lines. The Russian leader argued that Kyiv had made the offer only because Russia’s own deep-strike capabilities are far more powerful.
According to Putin, Kyiv also offered a framework to limit the active fighting exclusively to the four Ukrainian regions that Russia unilaterally annexed in 2022 but has never fully captured, namely Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Putin dismissed the proposal, arguing that it was a strategic manoeuvre designed to aid the Ukrainian armed forces. He stated that agreeing to the terms would allow Ukraine to relocate its forces from other areas to focus entirely on fending off Russian attacks in those four southeastern regions.
Kyiv has stepped up its long-range attacks on Russian military and energy facilities in recent months, aiming to cripple Moscow’s revenue streams that are used to fund the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
“Our ‘long-range sanctions’ reached two oil refineries in Russia,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday. “Each (strike) means a reduction in the resources that fuel the Russian war machine, and another step toward peace.”
The campaign has choked Russian fuel supplies, causing widespread shortages and long lines at gas stations across the country and prompting authorities in many regions to introduce fuel rationing. According to Western analysts, it has also slowed Moscow’s efforts on the battlefield, heaping pressure on the Kremlin to come to the negotiating table.
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