Putin rejects proposed limits on long-range strikes in Ukraine war

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a reported Ukrainian proposal to curb long-range attacks, signaling that Moscow is not ready to limit one of its military advantages as the war enters its fifth year. His comments came as Ukraine has stepped up drone strikes on Russian oil and fuel infrastructure.

In an interview with Russian state television on Sunday, Putin said Kyiv had proposed a mutual halt to long-range strikes as part of efforts toward peace. He argued the offer reflected pressure on Ukrainian forces along the roughly 1,250km front line and said Russia’s deep strikes were more damaging than Ukraine’s.

Ukrainian officials had not publicly responded to Putin’s remarks or confirmed that such a proposal had been sent, Al Jazeera reported.

Drone attacks widen pressure on Russian energy sites

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Ukraine had used long-range drones overnight to hit the Slavyansk and Yaroslavl oil refineries inside Russia. He wrote on X that such operations reduce the resources available to Russia’s war effort.

Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region, said on Telegram that a fire broke out at the refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani and that debris damaged several homes. He said one person was killed in the region, which lies east of Russian-occupied Crimea.

Yaroslavl Governor Mikhail Yevrayev also reported drone attacks on Telegram and said exits from the regional capital were temporarily closed. In Belgorod, Russia’s TASS news agency reported that one person was killed in the Shebekinsky district during 64 Ukrainian drone attacks over 24 hours.

Alexander Khinshtein, governor of the neighboring Kursk region, said Russia shot down 117 drones of various types and that drones dropped explosives on Russian territory seven times. Local Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks killed at least four people Sunday, including two in Zaporizhzhia and two in Kharkiv.

Why Moscow wants to keep the option open

Putin downplayed the military effect of Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, saying strikes on infrastructure did not change conditions at the front. He said Russia needed to expand production of air defense systems in response to the growing drone threat.

Ian Lesser, a distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told Al Jazeera that Russia has greater long-range strike capacity than Ukraine. He said Moscow is likely to see that capability as both leverage and deterrence as Ukraine improves its ability to hit targets deeper inside Russia.

Putin has previously warned against Western-backed long-range strikes on Russia. In September 2024, he told Russian state television that allowing Ukraine to use Western long-range weapons against Russian territory would mean NATO countries were at war with Russia. The United States and NATO later allowed Ukraine to use some supplied long-range missiles against Russian targets, but Russia did not declare war on NATO.

Peace efforts remain stalled

Diplomatic efforts have produced no settlement. US President Donald Trump has met separately with Putin and Zelenskyy since returning to office in January 2025, according to Al Jazeera, but the talks have not ended the war.

Putin said Tuesday that Moscow was prepared to resume talks based on terms discussed in Istanbul in 2022, including Russia’s demand that Ukraine give up the Donbas region, which is largely under Russian occupation. Ukraine has said it will not cede territory.

On Sunday, Putin said he expected Washington-led diplomacy to resume after the “hot phase” of the US-Israel war on Iran and said US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were expected in Moscow. Lesser told Al Jazeera that Putin’s rejection of strike limits points to a broader reluctance to accept restrictions on the war under current conditions.

This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.