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“If Putin does not want to end this war and wishes to continue it — we will not sit quietly, we will respond,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his comments on Ukraine’s strike on Moscow’s oil refinery on Thursday morning.
“If Ukraine burns, so will Moscow,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine’s president said Kyiv’s drone strike on the Moscow oil refinery is Kyiv’s response to Russia’s attack against the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the most important historic and religious symbols of Ukraine.
“We were at the Lavra, and I said we will prepare a response and you will see it. I think you are seeing it now,” Zelenskyy said, insisting that all Kyiv wants is to end Russia’s war.
“We do not want this war and never have. Everyone knows this, and our partners know it too,” he explained.
Zelenskyy also stressed that Moscow air defence — the strongest and most elaborate in the country — could not intercept Ukraine’s drone attack, which he called “entirely justified”.
“As you can all see, regardless of the three rings of air defence that Moscow has in place, we have said that we will target them,” he said.
Moscow oil refinery is one of the largest in Russia, supplying about 40% of the Moscow fuel market and the majority of the region’s petrol.
It also provides aviation fuel to all four of Moscow’s major airports and has a processing capacity of more than 12 million tonnes of crude oil per year, according to Ukraine’s General Staff.
Speaking with the reporters in the presidential WhatsApp chat, Zelenskyy also called for increased pressure on Russia.
He argued that sanctions should target the country’s energy sector, shadow fleet, oil and gas revenues, banking system, weapons production and defence industry “so that Russia realises there is no point in waging war. “
“The main thing is for the Russian people to begin to realise that it is just one man, Putin, who is waging this war, whilst it is the people who are paying the price for everything. “
This is why the pressure on Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin should intensify from Ukraine, Europe and the US, Zelenskyy said.
“It is also time for the Russians to come to their senses and put pressure on their leader,” he concluded.