Zelenskiy says Russia's gasoline supplies may be down by a fifth after Ukrainian attacks

By Dan Peleschuk

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian energy facilities may have reduced gasoline supplies in Russia by up to a fifth, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as both sides step up attacks on each other's energy infrastructure.

With diplomatic efforts to end the war largely stalled and little movement along the fiercely contested front line, Russian forces have focused on crippling Ukrainian gas production while Ukraine has been targeting Russia's oil refining capacity.

Reuters calculations in August showed that Ukrainian attacks had reduced Russian oil refining by almost a fifth on certain days. Zelenskiy's comments implied that level of shortage was now ongoing.

"This still needs to be verified, but we believe that they've lost up to 20% of their gasoline supply – directly as a result of our strikes," Zelenskiy said in remarks to journalists released on Thursday. He said there were various estimates as to the impact, and they ranged from 13% to 20%.

One of the latest attacks hit the Kirishi oil refinery, one of Russia's largest, halting a big crude processing unit, two industry sources said this week.

The Kremlin has said that Russia's domestic fuel market is fully supplied. Zelenskiy said the estimates were based on data, without specifying. Russia's government was due to hold a meeting on domestic fuel supplies on Thursday.

Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces had used domestically produced Neptune and Flamingo missiles in recent attacks, part of Ukraine's effort to scale up its homegrown arms industry.

Zelenskiy also said Russian forces had carried out 1,550 strikes on energy-related targets in Ukraine's Chernihiv, Sumy and Poltava regions over the past month, but had achieved only 160 hits.

US, RUSSIA HAVE 'NO SHARED PERSPECTIVE'

Russian forces have sought to grind forward on the battlefield since summer in a campaign Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces had broken.

Kremlin troops will try "urgently" to take the strategic eastern city of Pokrovsk, he said, adding that Moscow had failed to convince U.S. President Donald Trump that it is able to capture all of the eastern Donbas region.

Trump, who had been seeking a quick peace in the war, has in recent weeks signalled frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin and stronger support for Kyiv's war effort against Moscow.

"We believe that, as of today, the U.S. and Russia have no shared perspective on the war," Zelenskiy said. "And the U.S. understands that Russia is lying."

Zelenskiy said his chief of staff and Ukraine's prime minister would visit Washington early next week to discuss air defence, energy and sanctions on Russia.

The U.S. will provide Ukraine with intelligence on long-range energy infrastructure targets inside Russia, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported last week. The Kremlin said last week that Washington and NATO are already supplying intelligence to Ukraine to hit energy targets.

(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Philippa Fletcher)