MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that Moscow had been forced to launch strikes on energy sites of Ukraine in response to attacks on targets in Russia.
He made the remarks while speaking to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, after overnight strikes destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and targeted power facilities in several areas of Ukraine.
The president said the strikes were part of the measures to demilitarise Ukraine.
Putin said unfortunately, Moscow had a series of strikes on its energy sites recently and were forced to respond.
He added the strikes on energy sites are linked with solving one of the tasks Russia set in the war, and that is demilitarisation of Ukraine.
He said Russia did not carry out such strikes in winter because of humanitarian considerations.
Putin said Russia didn’t want to put social institutions without power. He added the Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries in recent weeks forces Moscow to respond.
During the meeting the Russian President again rejected any suggestion by Ukraine’s Western allies that Moscow had plans to target any European countries.
Putin again dismissed any notion of holding peace negotiations without participation of Russia.
Meanwhile the UN atomic agency’s director general has said the recent attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant could be the beginning of a new and dangerous war front.
Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna said the attacks indicated a major escalation and security dangers in Ukraine.
