President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia would continue to pursue its battlefield goal of fully taking over four Ukrainian regions, rejecting what he said was a new proposal from Ukraine to limit military action in the more than four-year-old war, Reuters reported.
In an interview with Russian state television journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin also said that Russia must increase the capacity of its air defenses to counter increased Ukrainian drone attacks, mainly targeting its oil industry. He noted that Russia is handling the fuel supply problems related to the Ukrainian strikes well.
At a meeting with ministers and heads of major oil companies earlier in the day, Putin acknowledged that the strikes had caused fuel shortages in various Russian regions, but stressed that Russia was dealing with the situation.
In the interview with Zarubin, the president said that Ukraine had proposed that the two sides stop the strikes in depth as a step towards peace. However, Moscow sees this as a means of easing pressure on Ukrainian forces along the 1,250-kilometer front line and will not allow it to distract it from its military objectives.
"It is clear why this proposal is being made – because our retaliatory strikes deep inside Ukraine are significantly stronger, have a greater effect and, frankly, are more destructive," Putin said.
"Given the catastrophic shortage of personnel, the Ukrainian armed forces clearly believe that this could be their salvation. But saving the Kiev regime is not part of our plans," he added.
The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not immediately respond to a late-night request for comment on Putin's statements. Earlier this month, Zelensky wrote an open letter to Putin offering a personal meeting, but the Russian leader rejected the offer.
The Ukrainian attacks are aimed at "distracting our attention and forces from achieving our main goals - the complete liberation of Donbas and Novorossiya, the Russian president said in the interview, referring to the two Donbas regions and the neighboring Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
Putin has long insisted that Ukraine give up the positions it still holds in the Donetsk region of Donbas as a key condition for any peace agreement. Seven months after its invasion in 2022, Russia annexed the four regions – The Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the Donbas, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, which it controls only partially, Reuters points out.
Commenting on Ukraine's campaign with medium- and long-range drones, Putin said: "The first task is to quickly and significantly increase the production of those air defense systems that are most needed".
"All strikes, wherever they hit our infrastructure, have no impact on the situation on the front, on the line of combat contact," he added.
Putin said Russia expects a resumption of US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war, as well as a new visit to Moscow by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as soon as the "hot phase" is resolved. of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.
He appeared to agree with comments last week by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that "no formal agreement was reached during Putin's talks with US President Donald Trump in Alaska last year, although US proposals were discussed".
"Nobody signed anything, but we discussed some options for ending the conflict in Ukraine," the Russian president said. He said the US side had asked for compromises, which he said were included in the proposals presented by the Americans during the talks.
Putin hinted that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with whom he held two days of talks last week, could help with peace talks. He did not mention Ukraine's claims that Russia is trying to draw Belarus further into the conflict.
The harsh statements of the Kiev regime, which many perceive as an attempt to draw Belarus into hostilities, do not cause panic among the country's leadership, although they are a cause for serious concern, Putin was quoted by TASS as saying, speaking about his meeting with Lukashenko.
The Belarusian president is ready in every way to support the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine by peaceful means, he stressed.
Belarus allowed its territory to be used at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but Lukashenko has pledged not to send troops to take part in the fighting, Reuters notes.
Vladimir Putin said Russia needed greater air defense capabilities to deal with Ukrainian drone attacks on oil infrastructure, but added that the country was successfully dealing with the consequences of these attacks, Reuters reported.
Russia must now, first of all, increase the production and supply of air defense (ADF) assets, constantly improving them in accordance with current realities, Putin said.
"There are several tasks here that we need to solve and which we have just discussed with colleagues. The first is to quickly and significantly increase the production of the most sought-after air defense assets, constantly improve them in accordance with the needs in the course of combat operations, in the defense of the relevant objects, taking into account what means the enemy uses and the fact that new unmanned aerial vehicles with new technologies are being supplied to him from Europe. the president said.
Russia has all these means, the question is the speed of increasing production and delivering them to the troops or to protect critical infrastructure facilities, he added.
Putin noted that Russia will not allow Ukrainian strikes to divert it from its plans for an offensive on the front line.
"All these strikes, no matter where they hit our infrastructure, in no way affect the situation on the front, on the line of combat contact", he said.
The Russian president acknowledged that there is a certain fuel shortage caused by Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, through which Kiev seeks to weaken Moscow's military efforts, Agence France-Presse reports.
"Of course, these strikes on our infrastructure facilities create problems, this is obvious. "We are currently observing a certain shortage, but it is not critical," Putin said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin, published by the Kremlin.
He pointed out that the authorities' primary task is to increase the capacity of air defense and ensure fuel supplies, including for Crimea.
The Russian president assured that Crimea's fuel needs will be fully met and that the peninsula currently has reserves for several days.
"As for the supply of energy carriers to Crimea, as the minister reported to me, the monthly needs are 70 thousand tons. Currently, Crimea has reserves for several days, but the necessary quantities will be provided," Putin said.
"We will increase these supplies both by land and by sea. I am confident that this task will be accomplished," he added.