EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries a legitimate way to end the war of aggression and said that the quickest way to stop such strikes is to end the war. Euronews reports, writes UNN.
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"Under international law, it is clear that [strikes on oil refineries] are a form of defense for Ukraine, because these facilities finance the war that is taking Ukrainian lives every day," Kallas said in an interview with Euronews.
Her statement came after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a deal to supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel fuel from Russia to offset the consequences of the war in the Middle East.
Trump also called for an "energy truce," under which Russia and Ukraine would stop carrying out mutual strikes on energy infrastructure.
"If you look at the bigger picture, most of the war’s financing comes from oil. That is why Ukraine strikes the refineries. Russia, meanwhile, attacks Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in order to cause Ukrainians as much suffering as possible next winter," Kallas said.
She stressed that in this war there is an obvious aggressor and victim, and that the United States should join the Europeans in putting pressure on Russia, not Ukraine, since the EU will continue to support Kyiv, which has no intention of capitulating.
Additional information
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would resume strikes on Russian oil refineries.
The International Energy Agency calculated that by the end of August, only five of Russia’s 32 large oil refineries had not been targeted by drone attacks, with some facilities having been raided as many as 15 times since the beginning of the full-scale war.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, responded to Trump’s initiative with "veiled irony, making it clear that there is effectively no energy truce, the publication writes". "What exactly was announced? What are the outlined parameters of the energy truce, and what does it mean? Was this specified?" Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov asked on Wednesday. However, he added that work on the relevant agreements was continuing.