KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to expand his military offensive against major oil facilities deep in the Russian interior.
“We hit a certain number of their refineries; they’ve got a problem. When they started to restore and saw the queues of cars, they redistributed the volumes to other refineries,” Zelenskyy said during a meeting with a small group of journalists, including POLITICO, in Kyiv.
“Therefore, our task is absolutely clear — to continue our work at other plants that have started to increase the volume, especially diesel. And we just have to work on it every day,” Zelenskyy added. Ukraine has reportedly struck 21 out of Russia’s 38 large oil refineries across the country since January, according to the BBC.
Ukraine aims to cripple the Russian oil industry and cut the key source of revenue to Moscow’s war machine. And Zelenskyy believes that long-range oil strikes, plus U.S. sanctions and a mega loan to Kyiv from the EU financed by frozen Russian assets, could push Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
Zelenskyy said that, even though Kyiv wants allies to continue providing long-range missiles, expanding domestic long-range capabilities is a key priority. He added that Ukraine conducts 90 percent of its deep strikes into Russia with its own long-range drones and cruise missiles, but sometimes Kyiv uses the U.K.’s Storm Shadow and French SCALP missiles to hit targets.
“Long-range capability is a component of independence and will be the greatest component for ensuring peace,” Zelenskyy added in an evening address to the nation Monday. “All deep-strike goals must be fully locked in by year’s end, including expansion of our long-range footprint.”
Earlier, he met with Ukrainian producers of long-range weapons and ordered the government to lock in 57 long-term contracts with makers of key long-range drones and missiles by the end of the year.
Ukraine is also building a stockpile of its latest home-made cruise missiles, the Flamingo, “to launch a […] massive strike on Russia by the end of the year,” Zelenskyy warned.
“We must work every day to weaken the Russians. Their money for the war comes from oil refining,” the Ukrainian president added.
Zelenskyy said strikes on Russian energy facilities are just part of a pressure campaign he hopes can force Putin to end his full-scale invasion.
A key part of that package of measures, Zelenskyy said, is the EU unfreezing €140 billion in Russian assets held in the bloc to use as a massive reparation loan to help Ukraine — and he’s keen for the EU to green-light that in December at a leaders’ summit.
“For Putin, the scariest part in the whole Russian-assets-for-Ukraine story is that Europe would give a signal that there is no point for him to continue his war of attrition against Ukraine, as there will be no financial attrition,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy said he was very grateful for American sanctions on Russia’s Lukoil and Rosneft oil companies and now hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump, during his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, will be able to persuade Beijing to buy less oil from Moscow.
“This is all the right direction to put pressure on Russia to be ready to end the war — sanctions, weapons, use of assets,” Zelenskyy said.
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