Ukraine vows to intensify strikes on Russian oil refineries as Russia's Defence Ministry threatens heavier attacks

Ukraine will step up attacks on Russian oil refineries in response to what President Volodymyr Zelensky described as a new Russian doctrine of airstrikes on Ukrainian cities, he told Reuters in an exclusive interview published Saturday, October 3. "With their attacks on our energy, we have to respond on their energy," Zelensky said, adding: "But we will not respond, of course, just like them, on any civilian objects."

Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had seen documents showing the new Russian approach allows attacks on infrastructure, logistics "and especially to attack in the cities," which Kyiv reads as an effort to force people out of large cities. That account rests on Ukrainian intelligence and has not been independently verified. Ukraine was already hitting Russian refineries, so the shift is one of intensity rather than a new class of target.

Russia's Defence Ministry answered on Sunday that "Russian strikes on military and military-industrial facilities, as well as related infrastructure in Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine, will be intensified". The Kremlin itself was unavailable for comment, Reuters reported; some headlines attributed the threat to President Vladimir Putin, but the published statement came from the ministry.

The escalation puts Kyiv at odds with Washington. The Trump administration has urged Ukraine to stop hitting refineries, citing rising global diesel prices. US diesel set a record $6.53 a gallon in late September, according to AAA data cited by the Kyiv Post, and President Donald Trump said on September 30 that diesel is hurt "much more, not by the Middle East, but by what's going on in Russia." Watch for confirmed outages at Russian refineries, the scale of Russian strikes on Kyiv in the coming days, and US diesel prices.