Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledges that Ukraine’s strikes have led to a “certain shortage” of fuel in Russia, according to an interview published by the Kremlin. Putin says attacks on critical, especially energy-related, infrastructure “create problems,” describing the disruption as “obvious” but not portraying it as a critical fuel emergency. The reports connect the shortage to repeated Ukrainian attacks during the ongoing four-year war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with strikes aimed at energy and infrastructure targets. Ukrainian officials and Kyiv characterize the attacks as justified retaliation, framing them as responses to Russia’s regular barrages on Ukrainian civilian areas and energy infrastructure since the invasion. The sources do not provide independent figures or assessments of the severity of the shortage, but they agree that Putin publicly links Russia’s fuel supply pressures to infrastructure damage from the fighting, while Kyiv disputes Russian claims about the impact and legitimacy of its actions.