Residents pass through debris at a site hit by drone strikes in Kyiv on Thursday. ALINA SMUTKO/REUTERS
MOSCOW/KYIV — Russia and Ukraine continued aerial attacks on each other, officials from both sides said, as the fate of ending the conflict remained uncertain.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Moscow conducted a massive attack on Ukraine's capital of Kyiv and other locations using long-range, high-precision air-, land-, sea-launched weapons and drones. It made the statement in a Telegram post.
The ministry added that it hit military and energy facilities around Kyiv, as well as military airports in several regions, including in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk, in what it said was retaliation for Ukraine's attack on civil infrastructure.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that President Vladimir Putin had been briefed about the massive overnight Russian strike on Kyiv, adding that Moscow would continue to increase pressure on Ukraine in order to achieve its goals.
For the Ukrainian side, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that its forces struck Russia's major Ufa oil refinery for the second time in a week.
"Every day, our plan for imposing Ukrainian long-range sanctions is being implemented," Zelensky said on X, referring to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russian territory.
"This is an entirely just response to everything Russia is doing against us," Zelensky also reported a strike on what he said was a "strategic" Russian military-industrial facility in the Penza region, involved in making components for missile weaponry used by Moscow in attacks on Ukraine.
The Ufa refinery is one of Russia's largest producers of lubricants and is located more than 1,000 kilometers from Ukraine, Zelensky said on social media.
Ukraine's latest drone attacks on oil refineries in Russia have created a fuel crisis.
Putin admitted in an interview earlier this week that Russia is facing fuel shortages. In the interview, Putin said Russia needed to boost its air defense capacity to counter intensified Ukrainian drone attacks aimed mainly at its oil industry.
Amid pressure from the West, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that the Russian economy has completed 80 percent of its adaptation to external shocks.
"When we talk about adaptation to external challenges, we arrive at that 80 percent figure," Novak said at the Bank of Russia Financial Congress.
"When it comes to the progress we are making toward technological sovereignty and technological leadership, I believe we are only halfway there," he added.
The deputy PM highlighted several key shifts in Russia's economic structure, notably the shrinking share of the fuel and energy complex.
Amid the fresh strikes on the battlefield, Zelensky asked the United States on Thursday for licenses to manufacture Patriot air defense missiles.
"Air defense supplies for Ukraine are an absolute and critical priority… We also very much count on a decision by the United States regarding licenses for Patriots and other forms of cooperation," he said in a post on Facebook.
In another development, German federal prosecutors said on Thursday that a Ukrainian national tied to the Nord Stream pipeline blasts has been charged with being an accomplice to a war crime, disruption of public services, causing an explosion and destroying structures.