Vladimir Putin has admitted Russia is facing fuel shortages caused by Ukrainian strikes on its refineries – even as he ordered his military to draw up plans for a new offensive to capture Kyiv.
In a state TV interview published by the Kremlin on Sunday, the Russian president acknowledged “a certain shortage” after Ukraine hit another oil refinery in the southern Krasnodar region. “Right now we’re observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical,” Putin said, conceding that “strikes against critical infrastructure … create problems”.
“Putin admits fuel shortages and orders new plans to capture Kyiv as Ukraine strikes deep inside Russia.”
The admission came as Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, revealed that Putin had ordered his army to find ways to launch new offensive operations on Ukraine. Syrskyi said scenarios include an offensive from Belarusian territory to capture the Ukrainian capital, and a strike from Russia’s bordering Bryansk region towards Ukraine’s Chernihiv region – the most probable option.
Hours before Putin’s interview, Ukraine struck a satellite centre in the Moscow region for the second time, according to president Volodymyr Zelensky. Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said his forces had attacked the Dubna space communications centre, some 500km from the border, used for reconnaissance and coordinating Russian forces in Ukraine.
The escalating strikes are part of a strategy using long-range drones that has sparked queues at petrol stations across Russia and fuel rationing in regions including occupied Crimea and Siberia. Analysts estimate more than a fifth of Russia’s total refining capacity may have been knocked offline. The International Energy Agency reported last week that Russian crude oil production dropped around 5% year-on-year last month due to the strikes, calling the disruption “unprecedented in the history of the Russia-Ukraine conflict”.
Kyiv is seeking to exploit what it sees as a six-to-nine month “window of opportunity” on the battlefield. Defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a letter that Ukraine’s total defence need is around €136 billion this year, with the Ukrainian budget covering €53 billion. Ukraine is asking its EU partners for €6.6 billion (£5.68bn) from the European Peace Facility for military aid.
“Putin is gradually being forced to publicly admit more and more about the reality of the war,” said Keir Giles, an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. “All of this means he may eventually accept what has been obvious for some time: that Russia has more to gain from freezing the conflict than from continuing to fight if current trends persist.”
Meanwhile, China’s covert military training of Russian forces last year was personally approved by Putin’s defence minister, Andrei Belousov, and involved at least four Russian and Chinese generals, according to two European officials and documents seen by Reuters. A classified Russian document referred to an internal decree issued by Belousov in August 2025, authorising Russian soldiers to travel to China for exercises at People’s Liberation Army facilities, where they were taught about chemical and radiation reconnaissance.