Ukraine will double down on attacking Russian oil refineriesin response to a new policy of airstrikes by Moscow designed to force people toabandon Kyiv and other cities, but will not target civilians, PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine’s intelligence services has obtained documentsshowing that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had issued a “new doctrine” ofmilitary attacks on a much broader range of civilian targets ahead of thiswinter, Zelenskiy said.

“We saw documents ‌and we know that they allow them toattack infrastructure, logistics, and especially to attack in the cities, inthe villages, everywhere, roads, schools, hospitals,” Zelenskiy told Reuters inan interview. “To pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities:this is the goal of the operation.”

Driving the shift in policy, Zelenskiy said, was Putin’sdesire to appear strong at a time when his military was losing ground in a keyfrontline region and sustaining higher levels of casualties.

The Kremlin was not available to comment on Saturday. But ina statement urging foreign nationals to leave Kyiv, the Russian ForeignMinistry said Moscow would continue to systematically hit targets in what itsaid were retaliatory strikes for Ukrainian attacks on Russia in recent months.

Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.

Counteroffensive in Donbas

Zelenskiy said a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive,code-named “Vivaldi”, had recaptured around 140 sq km (54 sq miles) of Ukrain’seastern Donbas region and was still ongoing. Russia has said it must controlDonbas in its entirety as a condition for any peace deal.

In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump’s administrationhas sought to ⁠revive talks to end the four-year-old conflict –Europe’s bloodiest since World War Two.

The US leader last month urged Ukraine to refrain fromhitting Russian oil installations, saying that was sending global diesel pricessurging.

But Zelenskiy, speaking as air raid sirens blared outsidethe gilded halls of the presidential offices, said he had received noindications from Russia that Putin was interested in peace talks, or discussinga ceasefire on energy infrastructure.

Over the past week, the Ukrainian capital has come underpersistent attack by Russian drones and missiles targeting energy and telecomsassets, road and rail infrastructure. For the first time, Russia has targetedthe bridges across the Dnipro river connecting east and west Kyiv.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine would react to the change in tacticsby Moscow, but would not target civilian infrastructure indiscriminately.

“We have to respond in any way (we can). With their attackson our energy, we have to respond on their energy. First of all, oil refinersetc: what gives money to them for this war,” Zelenskiy said in English. “But wewill not respond, of course, just like them, on any civilian objects.”

Support from Europe

After the Trump administration invited Putin to attend a G20summit in Miami in December and discussed business deals with Russian envoys,Zelenskiy urged Washington not to normalise relations with Russia beforeensuring a return to peace.

Zelenskiy said he would be happy to meet Putin for peacetalks at the G20, but he warned the US not to believe in “illusions” thatRussia would simply end hostilities if it gained control of Donbas.

“It’s not fair just to normalise,” said Zelenskiy, dressedin his trademark black T-shirt and military-style jacket. Any resumption ofeconomic and diplomatic ties with the West had to be in return for Russiaending ‌hostilities, he said: “Because ⁠peace is more important thanany kind of economy.”

While the US has proposed a resumption of trilateral talksin the coming weeks in the UAE, Zelenskiy noted that an exact date and locationfor the technical-level conversations had still not been set.

Ukrainian officials warn that Russia has stockpiled hundredsof ballistic missiles ahead of an expected winter onslaught against electricityand water infrastructure. Last winter, the worst of the war, Russian strikesleft swathes of the country without electricity and heating for days at a time.

Since the summer, Moscow has also begun launching dozens offast and relatively cheap jet-powered Shahed drones a day at Ukraine, whose airdefence teams have struggled to cope because their interceptor drones were tooslow to catch them.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine had been forced to rely heavily onits fighter aircraft – F-16s and MiGs – to down around 60% of the Russianjet-powered drones, but supplies of 20 mm ammunition for the planes were ⁠runninglow.

Kyiv was urgently working on other solutions – includingboosting its electronic jamming capabilities, he said. In the second half ofOctober, it would receive the first shipment of small, cheap air defencemissiles capable of hitting the new Shaheds.

Last week, Zelenskiy said Ukraine was developing five modelsof new interceptor drones capable of downing the jet Shaheds. Fresh from ameeting with his defence chiefs, he said tests on two of those models showed amodest success rate of around 30%.

“We’ll have to scale it,” he said. “I hope that with allthese things, with all these elements, we’ll find a way.”

Ballistic threat

Ukraine announced the ⁠first combat use this week ofits own domestically made ballistic missile, the FP-7, which has a range ofaround 250 km (155 miles).

Zelenskiy said he had called the manufacturer Fire Point topressure executives to finish a longer-range model, the FP-9, which the companyhas said could hit Moscow.

“I said to them, where is my FP-9?” said Zelenskiy, with agrin. “We need the FP-9. And the FP-9 will be (ready) this autumn, I’m sure.”

Zelenskiy said a recent spate of Russian drone incursionsand hybrid attacks in Europe were an effort to intimidate European populationsand to undermine support for ⁠Ukraine.

Some European leaders were starting to understand this, hesaid, and toughen their position.

Russia says such accusations are baseless and the result ofanti-Russian hysteria.

After talks with European officials in Brussels this week,Ukraine had unlocked funding to order the drones that it needs to keep fightingat the start of 2027, Zelenskiy said.

Ukrainian officials had worked on plans with Europeanpartners to plug a $27 billion hole in Kyiv’s defence budget this year.

The plans involve a combination of the reallocation ofUkraine’s own budget resources, bilateral assistance and using “money credits”from next year’s portion of a €90 billion EU loan, Zelenskiy said.

“We will close this (gap). I think this is absolutely a bigsuccess for our country,” he said.