Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in comments published on Saturday that Kyiv had opened “Pandora’s box” with its strikes on Russian economic targets, saying that Russia would hit back at Ukraine’s “most sensitive economic sectors”. Ukraine has escalated a campaign of drone strikes targeting Russian economic infrastructure, including oil refineries and online retailers’ warehouses, seeking to destroy infrastructure it says is central to Russia’s war effort.
Russia has responded with strikes against Ukrainian economic infrastructure, including Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea. Putin said that the strikes would not cause global food shortages because Russia would be able to replace Ukrainian exports, even as Kyiv has targeted Russian grain export infrastructure. He also restated his position that Moscow is open to peace talks, but only on the basis of “realities on the ground”, rather than what he called “exotic” proposals that he said had been made by Ukraine via intermediaries.