Putin shrugs off refinery strikes as fuel shortages grow and ceasefire stalls

President Vladimir Putin has downplayed the impact of Ukraine's widening attacks on Russian oil refineries, even as fuel shortages deepen across Russia and ceasefire proposals remain off the table. He has described the setback for one of the world's leading oil producers as "not critical", insisted the war will continue until Russia's goals are met, and rejected proposals that he says would benefit Ukraine.

The latest exchange came as Russia launched an 11-hour overnight barrage on Kyiv into Thursday morning, killing at least 21 people in one of the deadliest attacks on the Ukrainian capital since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion. The renewed strikes came against the backdrop of mounting pressure on Russia's energy sector and Putin's public insistence that the attacks will not force Moscow into negotiations on terms set by its adversaries.

Since March, there have been more than 50 reported Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries and other energy facilities in Russia and occupied Crimea. Ukrainian leaders have said the strikes are meant to pressure Moscow to end the war. At the same time, the attacks have brought the war closer to daily life for many Russians, cutting across Putin's long-standing narrative that the conflict does not directly affect ordinary people.

According to Chris Weafer, chief executive of consultancy Macro-Advisory, about one-third of Russia's refining capacity has been knocked offline. He said the strikes have caused lasting damage that will be expensive to repair. One of Moscow's main refineries has been hit twice despite significant air defences around the capital. The second strike, on June 18, set the facility on fire and damaged key equipment that is reportedly expected to take until the end of the year to repair.

Russian government statistics show gasoline production has fallen by about 17 per cent to 850,000 barrels a day. Rationing has been introduced in many regions, and motorists have had to queue for hours to refuel. Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has seen the worst shortages, with gasoline sales to individuals stopped altogether.

Putin chaired a meeting of government officials last weekend to discuss the shortages. In televised remarks, he said Russia was going through a "difficult period". He promised faster repairs at damaged energy facilities and said Moscow would consider importing petrol to make up for what he called "temporary" shortages. He also said Russia's arms industry would increase production of air defence systems to guard against future Ukrainian attacks.

He cast the Ukrainian strikes as an attempt to divide Russian society, slow Moscow's offensive and push the Kremlin into negotiations on "terms advantageous to our adversary". "We will not give them that chance," he said. Putin also said Ukraine's long-range attacks on Russian oil facilities "have absolutely no effect on the situation at the front".

Western military analysts, however, have said recent mid-range strikes on the Russian army have complicated military logistics and slowed the pace of Russia's advance, leaving the battlefield in a stalemate. Putin has maintained that Russian forces are still advancing along the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line. In an interview with state television last weekend, he referred to small villages and even streets in Ukraine while making that case.

Putin has also rejected ceasefire proposals from Kyiv and its Western allies, saying a truce would only give Ukrainian forces time to rest and regroup. He has made any ceasefire conditional on Ukraine withdrawing from the part of the Donetsk region it still controls, a demand Kyiv has rejected. He has also said a final peace deal would have to require Ukraine to drop its bid to join NATO, cut its military, and protect Russian language and culture.

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered to meet him, Putin responded by challenging him to come to Moscow, something Ukraine considers unacceptable. In the same interview last Sunday, Putin said Ukraine had proposed limiting the fighting to the four regions Russia annexed but has never fully captured - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. He said he rejected that idea because it would allow Ukrainian forces from other areas to reinforce the south-east.

"Faced with a catastrophic shortage of personnel, the armed forces of Ukraine apparently believe this could be their salvation," Putin said. "Saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans," he added. The Kremlin said the proposal had been conveyed through confidential channels, while Ukrainian officials have not publicly discussed any such suggestion.

Putin also rejected a Ukrainian proposal to mutually stop deep strikes into each other's territory. He said Russian attacks deep inside Ukraine are "much more powerful, sensitive and, frankly speaking, destructive". In Thursday's attack on Kyiv, Russia again hit residential areas while saying it was targeting military sites. By contrast, most Ukrainian strikes inside Russia have hit oil facilities, weapons factories and other military targets.

The latest developments underline the current shape of the war: Ukraine is trying to raise the cost for Russia by targeting its energy infrastructure, while Moscow is stepping up attacks and refusing a ceasefire unless its core demands are met. A United Nations tally says more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war.

With PTI Inputs