Zelensky names condition for halting strikes on Russian oil refineries

President Volodymyr Zelensky said this during a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“A reduction in strikes on Ukraine’s energy sector will lead to a reduction in strikes on Russia’s. However, controlling the numbers is difficult. Therefore, I consider a ceasefire logical, or at least – they do not strike our energy infrastructure, and we do not strike theirs,” Zelensky said in response to a question about whether there are conditions, including from partners, for halting strikes on Russian oil refineries.

The President emphasized that Ukraine uses exclusively its own weapons for long-range strikes. He also stressed that Russians must feel what war is like.

“We are defending ourselves. If we do not hit them back, they will continue to strike us and will not even consider us or understand what war is. Therefore, we must respond. We respond to their attacks. We will act as much as we have the money and weapons to do so, and we will do everything in a mirrored way. Everything according to justice,” the head of state noted.

As reported by Ukrinform, on the night of April 7, Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck the Ust-Luga oil terminal in Slobodka, Leningrad region (Russia).

On April 6, drones of the SBU Alpha Special Operations Center, together with other components of the Defense Forces (DIU, Unmanned Systems Forces, Special Operations Forces, and the State Border Guard Service), carried out an operation at the Sheskharis oil loading terminal in the seaport of Novorossiysk in Russia’s Krasnodar territory.

Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine