WASHINGTON, April 15. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was reportedly unhappy after the United States asked him to refrain from targeting Russian oil refineries, writes The Washington Post, citing unnamed US officials.
According to the newspaper, during a private meeting with Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference in February, US Vice President Kamala Harris asked Kiev not to attack Russian oil refineries as it might send global oil prices up and push Russia to retaliate harshly. "The request, according to officials familiar with the matter, irritated Zelensky and his top aides," the newspaper said, adding that Zelensky ignored this recommendation as he was "uncertain whether it reflected the consensus position of the Biden administration."
The newspaper noted that US officials believe the military benefits of Ukraine’s air raids on Russian oil refineries are "of questionable value," since "the strikes do little to diminish Russia’s war-fighting abilities" and only lead to Russian counterattacks on Ukrainian power facilities, which do much more harm that Ukraine’s raids.
Apart from that, this tactic might raise global energy prices, the newspaper pointed out.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on April 14 that Kiev is ready to look at stopping attacks on Russian refineries if Western allies supply several Patriot air defense batteries.
The Financial Times reported earlier that the US administration demanded that Kiev stop its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure facilities in a bid to prevent a massive retaliatory attack from Russia and a possible increase in global energy prices.
Meanwhile, Russian presidential press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said earlier that Moscow would like Washington to insist that Kiev not merely stop attacks on energy facilities in Russia but completely abandon its terrorist activities, first of all, against civilian homes.