Ukraine war briefing: kyiv to increase attacks on oil refineries due to Moscow’s winter strategy, says Zelenskyy | Russia

Ukraine will intensify its attacks against Russian oil refineries, but will not target civilians, due to a new policy of air strikes from Moscow designed to force people to abandon Kyiv and other cities, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said so. Ukrainian intelligence services have obtained documents showing that Russian leader Vladimir Putin issued a new doctrine of military attacks against a much wider range of civilian targets as winter approaches, Ukraine’s president told Reuters. “We have seen documents and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure, logistics, and above all to attack in cities, in villages, everywhere, on the roads, schools, hospitals,” he said. “Putting pressure on people to leave the capital, to leave different cities: that is the aim of the operation.”

“We must respond in every way possible. With their attacks on our energy, we must respond on their energy. First of all, oil refiners: what makes them money for this war“, Zelenskyy said. “But we will not respond, of course, to any civil good.” Saturday’s Russian attacks in Ukraine killed at least six people and damaged kyiv’s northern bridgedisrupting traffic for the third day in Moscow’s latest effort to complicate life in the Ukrainian capital. Previously, it had hit apartment buildings, supermarket warehouses, gas stations, data centers and other civilian targets.

An ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive, codenamed Vivaldi, has retaken approximately 140 km² (54 square miles) of Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region.Zelensky told Reuters. This is a setback for Putin, who wants Russia to completely control Donbass before agreeing to any peace deal. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was working to compensate for low supplies of munitions for its fighter jets – F-16s and MiGs – which destroy about 60% of Russian jet drones. He said Ukraine was working to strengthen its jamming capabilities; and in the second half of October it would receive a first delivery of small, inexpensive air defense missiles capable of hitting new jet-powered Shahed drones. Ukraine has started deploying its own domestically-made ballistic missile, the FP-7, with a range of about 250 km (155 miles), Zelenskyy said. It hoped to have a longer-range model, the FP-9, ready by fall.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in kyiv on Sunday accompanied by CEOs of German defense companies. in a ⁠show of support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy ⁠amid increasing Russian attacks on ‌Ukrainian‌ cities. “I traveled to kyiv today because Ukraine needs all our support in the coming weeks,” Merz said, claiming that “Russian forces were bombing cities, residential buildings and thermal power plants.” “If Russia is not stopped, sooner or later its war machine will turn against us… I will say today to President Zelensky: you can continue to count on our help. »

Exit polls for Latvia’s parliamentary elections released Saturday evening favored Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs’ centrist, pro-Ukrainian Joint List party.suggesting that the country will maintain its pro-European and pro-Ukrainian course. But populist parties also had a good night after an election campaign dominated by fears about neighboring Russia and the cost of living in the country. With 72% of ballots counted, the Joint List was with 36.5%, followed by the populist Maga-style party Latvia First with 13.0%. Kulbergs told reporters that his party would not cooperate with any pro-Russian party: “Our strong position is that any economic ties with Russia weaken us; Russia would exploit this. »

The Baltic countries have been warning for months that Russia is increasing sabotage, cyberattacks and other hybrid attacks across Europe. to erode support for Ukraine and sow fear, even as some Western officials doubt its ability to launch a direct attack on NATO, of which Latvia is a member. Throughout his campaign, Kulbergs promised more anti-drone capabilities to Latvia and to keep defense spending at 5% of gross domestic product, one of the highest levels in NATO. His pro-Kremlin rivals have said Latvia should stop all aid to Ukraine and focus more on cost-of-living issues, particularly among the country’s Russian-speaking minority.