Zelenskiy Vows Stepped-Up Strikes on Russian Refineries in Response to Moscow’s “New Doctrine” of Airstrikes

KYIV – Ukraine will intensify its attacks on Russian oil refineries in response to a new Russian policy of airstrikes aimed at driving people out of Kyiv and other cities, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with Reuters. He stressed that Ukraine would not target civilians.

Zelenskiy said Ukrainian intelligence had obtained documents showing that President Vladimir Putin had approved a “new doctrine” of strikes on a much wider range of civilian targets ahead of the coming winter. According to Zelenskiy, the documents authorise attacks on infrastructure, logistics, roads, schools and hospitals in cities and villages across the country. The aim, he said, is to pressure residents into leaving the capital and other urban centres.

The Ukrainian leader said Kyiv would respond to the shift in Russian tactics but would not hit civilian infrastructure indiscriminately. Instead, Ukraine will focus on Russia’s oil refining industry, a key source of revenue for Moscow’s war effort.

The pledge comes despite pressure from Washington. Last month, US President Donald Trump urged Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil facilities, saying the attacks were pushing up global diesel prices. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has also tried to revive negotiations to end the war, now in its fifth year and the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second World War.

Moscow has signalled no let-up in its own campaign. In a statement urging foreign nationals to leave Kyiv, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Russia would keep systematically striking targets, describing the attacks as retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory in recent months.

Ukraine is bracing for a difficult winter. Last year, the hardest period of the war so far, Russian strikes left large parts of the country without electricity and heating for days at a time. Since the summer, Russia has been launching dozens of fast, relatively cheap jet-powered Shahed drones every day. Ukrainian air defence crews have struggled against them because existing interceptor drones are too slow to catch them.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine expects its first delivery of small, low-cost air defence missiles capable of downing the jet-powered Shaheds in the second half of October. He added last week that Ukraine is developing five new models of interceptor drones designed for the same purpose.

Ukraine is also expanding its long-range strike capability. This week it announced the first combat use of the FP-7, a domestically produced ballistic missile with a range of about 250 kilometres. Zelenskiy said he had personally called the manufacturer, Fire Point, to push it to speed up work on the longer-range FP-9, which the company says could reach Moscow.

Zelenskiy also said a recent series of Russian drone incursions and hybrid attacks in Europe was intended to intimidate European citizens and weaken support for Ukraine. Russia rejects such accusations as baseless and the product of anti-Russian hysteria.