Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that Russia was “mistaken” in assuming that its oil refineries would not become targets, as Ukrainian drone attacks exacerbate a fuel crisis that has forced Moscow to resort to gasoline imports from abroad.
Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that Moscow underestimated Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian oil refineries, amid an increasingly severe fuel crisis, highlighting the impact of the Ukrainian drone campaign.
Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum on Thursday, Putin admitted that Russian authorities had initially assumed that oil refineries would not be targeted, considering them civilian objectives, writes kyivpost.com.
“We started from the idea that they were purely civilian installations and that they could not become targets of attacks, not even in the context of an armed conflict,” Putin said. “But, in this regard, we were mistaken. Unfortunately, our adversary thinks differently.”
The statement comes in the context of Russia’s own sustained campaign against Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure. For years, Russian forces have repeatedly targeted the power grid, heating systems, and other Ukrainian energy facilities, leaving millions of Ukrainians without electricity and heat in the autumn and winter months. Kiev’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, in turn, come after years in which Russia has used strikes on the Ukrainian energy system to disrupt civilian life and exert pressure on the population.
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