Ukraine to strike Russian refineries in response to Moscow’s ‘new doctrine’ of airstrikes

Ukraine will step up efforts to attack Russian oil refineries in response to a new policy of airstrikes by Moscow aimed at forcing the population to abandon kyiv and other cities, but it will not target civilians, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Ukrainian intelligence services obtained documents showing that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had issued a “new doctrine” of military attacks against a much wider range of civilian targets before winter, Zelensky said.

“We have seen documents and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure…logistics…roads, schools, hospitals, to pressure people to leave the capital, to leave different cities,” Zelensky said. “That’s the purpose of the operation.”

The driving force behind the policy change, Zelensky said, was Putin’s desire to appear strong at a time when his army was losing ground in a key frontline region and suffering higher levels of casualties.

The Kremlin was not available for comment on Saturday. But in a statement urging foreign nationals to leave kyiv, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow would continue to systematically strike targets in what it sees as retaliatory strikes for Ukrainian attacks on Russia in recent months.

Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.

Counter-offensive in Donbass

Zelensky said an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive, codenamed “Vivaldi,” had reconquered about 140 square kilometers (54 square miles) of Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, which Russia has said it must control in its entirety as a condition of any peace deal.

In recent weeks, the administration of US President Donald Trump has sought to restart negotiations to end the four-year-old conflict, the bloodiest in Europe since World War II.

Last month, the US leader urged Ukraine to refrain from hitting Russian oil facilities, saying it would drive up global diesel prices.

But Zelensky, speaking as air raid sirens blared outside the gilded corridors of the presidential offices, said he had received no indication from Russia that Putin was interested in peace talks or in discussing a cease-fire on energy infrastructure.

Over the past week, the Ukrainian capital has been the target of persistent Russian drone and missile attacks targeting energy and telecom assets, as well as road and rail infrastructure. For the first time, Russia targeted the bridges over the Dnipro River connecting eastern and western kyiv.

Zelensky said Ukraine would respond to Moscow’s change in tactics, but would not respond in kind by indiscriminately targeting civilian infrastructure.

“We must respond in every way possible. Faced with their attacks on our energy, we must respond on their energy. First of all, the oil refiners: what brings them money for this war,” Zelensky said in English. “But we will of course not react, like them, on civilian objects.”

Support from Europe

After the Trump administration invited Putin to attend the G20 summit in Miami in December and discussed trade deals with Russian envoys, Zelensky urged Washington not to normalize relations with Russia before securing a return to peace.

Zelensky said he would be happy to meet with Putin for G20 peace negotiations, but he warned the United States not to believe in “illusions” that Russia would end hostilities if it took control of Donbass.

“It’s not right to normalize,” Zelensky said, wearing his trademark black T-shirt and military-style jacket. Any resumption of economic and diplomatic relations with the West must be in exchange for peace, he said: “Because peace is more important than any type of economy.”

While the United States has proposed resuming trilateral negotiations in the coming weeks in the UAE, Zelensky noted that the exact date and location for conversations at the technical level have not been set.

Ukrainian officials warn that Russia has stockpiled hundreds of ballistic missiles in preparation for an expected winter attack on power and water infrastructure. Last winter, the worst of the war, Russian strikes left swaths of the country without electricity or heat for several days.

Since the summer, Moscow has also begun launching dozens of fast and relatively cheap Shahed jet drones each day toward Ukraine, whose air defenses have struggled because the previous generation of interceptor drones were too slow to catch them.

Zelensky said Ukraine had been forced to rely heavily on its fighter jets – F-16s and MiGs – to shoot down about 60% of Russian jet drones, but that reserves of 20mm ammunition for the planes were low.

kyiv is urgently working on other solutions, including increasing its jamming capabilities, he said. In the second half of October, it is expected to receive its first delivery of small, inexpensive air defense missiles capable of hitting the new Shaheds.

Last week, Zelensky said Ukraine was developing five models of new interceptor drones capable of shooting down Shahed jets. Fresh from a meeting with his defense chiefs, he said tests of two of those models had shown a modest success rate of about 30 percent.

“We will have to expand it,” he said. “I hope that with all these things, with all these elements, we will find a way.”

Ballistic threat

Ukraine this week announced the first combat use of its own domestically produced ballistic missile – the FP-7, which has a range of around 250 km (155 miles).

Zelensky said he called manufacturer Fire Point to pressure executives to quickly complete a longer-range model, the FP-9, which the company said could reach Moscow.

“I told them, ‘Where is my FP-9?’” Zelensky said with a smile. “We need the FP-9. And the FP-9 will be (ready) this fall, I’m sure.”

Zelensky said a recent wave of Russian drone incursions and hybrid attacks in Europe was an attempt to intimidate European populations and divide support for Ukraine.

Some European leaders are starting to understand this, he says, and are hardening their position.

Russia says such accusations are baseless and the result of anti-Russian hysteria.

After discussions with European officials in Brussels this week, Ukraine found funds to proceed with the drone orders it needs to continue fighting in early 2027, Zelensky said.

Ukrainian officials have been working on a plan with European partners to plug a $27 billion hole in kyiv’s defense budget this year.

The plans involve a combination of reallocation of Ukraine’s own budgetary resources, bilateral aid and the use of “money credits” from next year’s share of a 90 billion euro EU loan, Zelensky said.