Putin says Russia will press on with front-line campaign regardless of proposals

President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia will press ahead with its battlefield aim of fully capturing four Ukrainian regions, rejecting what he said was a new proposal by Ukraine to rein in hostilities in the more than four-year-old war.



Putin, speaking to a Russian state television interviewer, also said Russia needed to boost its air defence capacity to counter intensified Ukrainian drone attacks aimed mainly at its oil industry. He said Russia was coping well in tackling fuel supply problems linked to the Ukrainian strikes.



Putin acknowledged earlier on Sunday at a meeting in the Kremlin with government ministers and other officials that the strikes had triggered fuel shortages in various Russian regions but that Russia was dealing with them.



In his television interview, Putin said that Ukraine had proposed a mutual halt to long-range strikes as a step towards peace. But Moscow saw it as a means to relieve pressure on Kyiv's forces along the two sides' 1,250-km front line and would not be distracted by it.



"It is clear why this proposal is being made, because our counter-strikes deep into Ukrainian territory are much stronger, have greater impact and are, frankly, more destructive," Putin said.