President Vladimir Putin on July 8 affirmed that Ukraine's attacks on energy infrastructure will not weaken the Russian economy or cause panic in society.
According to RT radio, speaking at an online meeting with government officials, Mr. Putin said that recently, Ukraine has increased medium and long-range attacks targeting many targets deep within Russian territory. Including oil refineries, gas stations, civil infrastructure and means of transport, including vehicles circulating between Russia and the Crimean peninsula.
According to the Russian leader, these attacks disrupted logistics operations, affected fuel supplies in some localities and caused civilian casualties.
Clearly, the opponent is trying to harm our economy, but above all, it creates social anxiety. We understand that goal is impossible to achieve," Putin said.
He emphasized that Russia's energy system is one of the most resistant systems in the world, and requested functional agencies to strengthen coordination with energy businesses to quickly overcome local fuel shortages when arising.
President Putin also proposed to soon implement necessary measures to lower fuel prices in Crimea, where gasoline and diesel prices have increased sharply due to scarce supply.
According to Russia, this situation stems from attacks by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles targeting fuel tankers.
Russia also announced that it will continue to implement systematic retaliatory strikes targeting military infrastructure throughout Ukraine, including the capital Kiev. This week, the country's forces launched a large-scale attack with unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles, targeting weapons manufacturing and maintenance facilities, fuel depots and Ukrainian military airports.
