An unnamed U.S. official says Vladimir Putin privately warned Washington that Russia intends to intensify attacks on Ukraine after Kyiv’s expanding campaign against Russian oil infrastructure, raising concerns about another winter of strikes on both countries’ energy systems.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin has privately warned U.S. officials that Moscow intends to intensify its attacks on Ukraine in response to a widening Ukrainian campaign against Russian oil refineries, according to an American official cited in a new report, as both countries prepare for the possibility of another winter centered on attacks against energy infrastructure.
“Putin is going to hit [Ukraine] hard, and he’s told us he’s going to,” the unidentified American official told The New York Post.
The Post reported that Putin communicated a message characterized as “Now it’s our turn” following repeated Ukrainian drone and missile attacks against Russia’s refining network.
Neither the Kremlin nor the White House had publicly disclosed the reported private communication, and the precise scale, timing and targets of any Russian retaliation remain unknown.
Russia has, however, publicly signaled that it could expand attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector. Earlier in September, Putin said Russian forces were preparing large-scale strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure while acknowledging that Ukrainian drone attacks had caused significant damage to Russian refineries.
The warning comes as the energy war between Moscow and Kyiv has intensified substantially.
Ukraine has spent months attacking refineries, storage facilities and other oil-related infrastructure deep inside Russia, arguing that the facilities generate fuel and revenue used to sustain Moscow’s military operations.
Zelenskyy outlined that strategy in his Sept. 24 address to the United Nations General Assembly.
“But oil itself is not Ukraine’s target, not our target. Not gasoline or diesel. Not factories or ports as such,” Zelenskyy said. “Our target is Russia’s ability to finance this war, to drag it out, to make it more brutal and more destructive.”
Ukraine’s campaign has increasingly affected Russia’s refining capacity and fuel exports.
Reuters reported Sept. 15 that half of Russia’s six largest diesel-producing refineries had reduced or halted production following Ukrainian strikes. Russia, previously the world’s second-largest diesel exporter behind the United States, imposed restrictions on diesel exports as domestic production declined.
One of the most consequential attacks came Sept. 20, when Ukraine launched what the Financial Times described as its largest-ever drone attack on Moscow.
The operation struck the Gazprom Neft-operated Moscow refinery, one of Russia’s major fuel-producing facilities. Russian officials said hundreds of drones were intercepted during the broader assault, while fires and other damage were reported at multiple locations.
Industry sources subsequently told Reuters that the Moscow refinery halted crude processing after its two primary refining units were damaged. The facility processed 11.6 million metric tons of crude in 2024 and produced approximately 2.9 million tons of gasoline and 3.2 million tons of diesel that year. Repairs were expected to take several weeks.
Ukraine also struck major Russian refineries in Samara and Bashkortostan around the time of the U.N. General Assembly, adding to months of attacks on energy installations hundreds of miles from Ukrainian territory.
The New York Post reported that Ukrainian forces have damaged 27 of Russia’s 32 largest oil refineries and placed the estimated economic damage at close to $20 billion. Those specific totals have not been independently confirmed.
Ukraine’s General Staff has separately claimed that long-range strikes have taken approximately 45% of Russia’s total refining capacity offline. That figure is a Ukrainian military estimate and has not been independently verified.
Independent reporting nevertheless confirms substantial disruptions.
Reuters found that Ukrainian drone attacks were hitting Russian refineries roughly every three days during the first eight months of 2026 and that several major facilities had sharply curtailed production.
The consequences have extended beyond Russia.
Global diesel markets have tightened sharply amid simultaneous disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and conflict in the Middle East. European diesel futures recently reached record highs and were more than double their levels at the beginning of 2026, while average U.S. retail diesel prices climbed above $6 per gallon for the first time on record this month.
President Donald Trump has publicly urged Ukraine to stop attacking Russian diesel infrastructure, saying the strikes are worsening an international fuel shortage.
“Mr. Zelenskiy has to do one thing: He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters Sept. 13.
“We spoke to Mr. Zelenskiy about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel. That’s hurting the world,” Trump said.
Trump attributed much of the diesel shortage to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Market data, however, indicate that several factors are contributing, including Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, disruptions to Middle Eastern exports and reduced fuel shipments associated with the war involving Iran.
Zelenskyy has not agreed to unilaterally stop Ukraine’s campaign.
Instead, he has proposed a reciprocal arrangement under which Kyiv would halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure if Moscow stopped striking Ukraine’s critical energy systems.
Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine’s electricity generation, transmission networks, gas facilities and heating infrastructure during the war.
The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine warned Sept. 21 that continuing Russian attacks on critical energy infrastructure were increasing risks for Ukrainian civilians as winter approached. The commission said the previous winter saw power plants, transmission lines, heating facilities and gas infrastructure damaged or destroyed as temperatures fell as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius.
That history has contributed to growing concern in Kyiv that another sustained Russian campaign against Ukraine’s power grid could begin as temperatures fall.
Zelenskyy addressed that possibility directly during his U.N. speech.
“We will make that happen this winter if Russia continues to target our energy system and our heating,” he said.
“Ukrainians understand that this winter could be very harsh for us. But in response, we will have no choice but to make it painful for Russia too,” Zelenskyy told the U.N. General Assembly.
He said Ukraine believes reciprocal de-escalation should occur before winter rather than after another cycle of strikes begins.
“And that’s exactly why we say that de-escalation steps are important, are needed before winter. Now,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy met Trump on the sidelines of the General Assembly on Sept. 22, with the Ukrainian president’s office saying the two discussed possible measures that could create an opening for diplomacy before winter.
“Both the U.S. and Ukraine want to see this senseless Russian war ended before winter. We discussed potential de-escalatory steps that can open up the way to diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said after the meeting.
Despite those discussions, the two sides have continued striking each other’s energy and industrial infrastructure.
An American official cited by the Post said “hawks” within Ukraine’s government have “carried the day” in the debate over whether Kyiv should continue attacking Russian refineries despite Trump’s request.
The official nevertheless suggested that diplomatic efforts have not completely collapsed and said an end to the war could still be approaching.
“It’s just that when they send these big bombs in there and they take out refineries, everyone says … ‘here we go again.’”
Washington has resumed efforts to restart direct negotiations after U.S.-mediated talks stalled earlier this year.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow and Kyiv in early September, holding discussions with both governments in an attempt to revive negotiations. Ukrainian officials subsequently said they were preparing for the possibility of new three-party talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States in October.
Territory remains one of the central unresolved issues.
Russia claims Ukrainian territory it does not fully control, particularly in the eastern Donbas region, while Ukraine has resisted demands to surrender territory still held by its forces. Reuters reported that the status of Ukrainian-controlled areas of the Donbas remains a principal obstacle to renewed negotiations.
Crimea presents another dispute. Russia seized and annexed the peninsula in 2014, an action Ukraine and most of the international community do not recognize. Moscow also claims four additional Ukrainian regions it announced it had annexed in 2022 despite not controlling all of their territory.
The competing territorial demands have left the core positions of Moscow and Kyiv far apart despite repeated U.S. efforts to restart negotiations. AP reported earlier this month that those demands remained mutually incompatible, particularly concerning territorial concessions.
Putin has publicly maintained that Russia is prepared to participate in talks intended to end the war, while rejecting negotiations that merely freeze the conflict on terms Moscow considers unacceptable.
“If someone makes, or can make, a tangible contribution to this process, we are all in favour,” Putin said Sept. 1, while describing existing negotiations as largely frozen.
At the same time, Russia has continued offensive operations in Ukraine and maintained its pressure on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has increasingly relied on domestically produced long-range drones and missiles to carry the war deeper into Russia.
Zelenskyy said at the United Nations that Ukrainian weapons can now reach Russian industrial and military installations thousands of kilometers from the border.
“When Russia started this war, it could never have imagined that Ukrainian long-range drones would one day reach its factories, its military factories somewhere in Siberia and on the Yamal Peninsula – thousands of kilometers from our border,” Zelenskyy said.
His government argues that Russia’s oil industry is directly connected to Moscow’s ability to finance and sustain military operations.
Russia, in turn, has described attacks on its energy and economic infrastructure as terrorism and has repeatedly threatened retaliation.
The coming winter therefore presents two competing paths: a negotiated pause in attacks on critical infrastructure, or an intensified exchange in which Moscow targets Ukraine’s power and heating network while Kyiv continues striking the Russian refining industry.
For now, the second possibility appears increasingly prominent.
The reported warning from Putin has not been publicly confirmed by either government, but it is consistent with Moscow’s public threats of larger strikes. At the same time, Zelenskyy has made clear that Ukraine does not intend to absorb another Russian campaign against its energy system without retaliating against Russian targets.
The confrontation has already produced effects well beyond the battlefield, reducing Russian refinery output and adding pressure to global diesel markets already strained by other conflicts.
Whether the escalating energy war can be interrupted by renewed diplomacy remains unresolved as Washington prepares for another attempt at negotiations and both Russia and Ukraine enter the colder months with the capability — and publicly stated willingness — to strike the other’s critical infrastructure.
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