Vladimir Putin held a government meeting by video link and for the first time publicly commented on gasoline shortages following strikes on oil refineries. The main report was delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who described the situation on the fuel market as “difficult, but under control.”
According to Novak, the authorities are already taking steps to supply the domestic market with gasoline. The measures he listed included increasing refinery capacity, postponing scheduled maintenance at plants, and shortening the duration of that work.
Another deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, said the government and regional authorities were preparing measures to refund tourists for trips to Crimea and compensate businesses for losses.
Responding to the reports, Putin said the threats that, in his words, Kyiv is trying to create must be reduced to a minimum. He claimed such attacks could not affect the situation at the front, where Russian forces, he said, continue to advance. He also added that events inside Russia allegedly only encourage soldiers to carry out the tasks set for them.
Putin also said that Russia is ready for negotiations with Ukraine, but only on the basis of the understandings reached in Istanbul in 2022. He added that Anchorage and the principles he outlined during a speech at the Foreign Ministry in June 2024 should also be taken into account.
The Istanbul understandings refer to an unfinished draft agreement on Ukraine’s neutral status. Moscow says Kyiv abandoned it under the influence of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson denied that account, while Volodymyr Zelensky said the deal was rejected because Western countries were unwilling to provide Ukraine with security guarantees.
The so-called “Anchorage formula,” according to the Kremlin’s interpretation cited by Reuters, includes transferring all of Donbas to Russian control and freezing the front line in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. In addition, on June 14, 2024, Putin set out conditions for ending the war at the Foreign Ministry, including the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions within their administrative borders, Ukraine’s renunciation of NATO membership, and the formal recognition of those territories in international agreements.