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Zelenskiy claims that Russia's gasoline supply may have dropped by up to a fifth following the Ukrainian attacks

The President of Russia, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that Ukrainian long-range attacks on Russian energy installations may have cut gasoline supplies by as much as a fifth in Russia. Both sides are intensifying their attacks on the other's energy infrastructure.

As diplomatic efforts to end this war have largely stagnated and there has been little movement on the front lines, Russian forces are focusing their efforts on crippling Ukrainian oil refinery capacity while Ukraine is targeting Russia's gas production.

Calculations in August indicated that Ukrainian attacks reduced Russian oil refinery by nearly a fifth at certain times. Zelenskiy implied in his comments that the level of shortage is now continuing.

Zelenskiy told journalists in a statement released Thursday that "this still needs to verified but we believe they've been able to lose up to 20% of the gasoline supply directly because of our strikes."

The Kremlin said that the domestic Russian fuel market was fully supplied.

Zelenskiy stated that Ukrainian forces used Neptune and Flamingo rockets produced domestically in recent attacks as part of Ukraine’s efforts to expand its homegrown weapons industry.

Zelenskiy said that Russian forces have carried out 1,550 attacks on energy-related targets within Ukraine's Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the last month but only achieved 160 hits.

US AND RUSSIA DO NOT SHARE A COMMON PERSPECTIVE

Since the summer, Zelenskiy claimed that Ukrainian forces had destroyed a Russian campaign.

He said that Kremlin forces will try to "urgently take" the strategic eastern city, Pokrovsk. Moscow has failed to convince U.S. president Donald Trump that it can capture the entire eastern Donbass region.

Trump, who was seeking a quick end to the war, expressed frustration in recent weeks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a stronger support for Kyiv’s war effort against Moscow.

Zelenskiy stated, "We do not believe that the U.S. or Russia share a common perspective on war as of today." "And the U.S. knows that Russia lies."

Zelenskiy announced that his chief of staff, as well as Ukraine's Prime Minister, would be visiting Washington in the first week of next month to discuss energy, air defence and sanctions against Russia. (Reporting and editing by Sharon Singleton, Philippe Fletcher, and Dan Peleschuk)

(source: Reuters)