Putin Rejects Ukraine's Long-Range Strike Limits
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- Putin rejected Ukraine's reported proposal to mutually limit long-range strikes, telling Russian state TV that Moscow's counterstrikes are "much stronger, have greater impact and are, frankly, more destructive" than Ukraine's, and that "saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans."
- Ukraine struck the Slavyansk and Yaroslavl oil refineries overnight with long-range drones roughly 300km and 700km from the front line, respectively, prompting Zelenskyy to declare each attack "means fewer resources serving Russia's war machine," with one person killed in the Krasnodar region by debris.
- Russia shot down 117 Ukrainian drones across multiple regions in 24 hours, including 64 in Belgorod where one person was killed, while Putin acknowledged Moscow must "quickly and significantly ramp up production" of air defense systems to counter the intensified campaign.
- The proposal Putin rejected came from Kyiv as part of a broader peace push; in early June Zelenskyy wrote Putin an open letter proposing a direct meeting, citing the US focus on its war on Iran and warning that waiting for Washington's attention to return to Europe "would be wrong."
- Putin said Moscow is ready to renew talks on the basis of 2022 Istanbul negotiations — which include Russia's demand that Ukraine surrender the Donbas region — and expects US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to visit Moscow once the "hot phase" of the US-Israel war on Iran is resolved.
- Russia's position has shifted on long-range weapons: in September 2024 Putin warned Western-supplied strikes inside Russia would mean NATO countries are "at war" with Russia, yet by November 2024 Ukraine was given NATO/US clearance to fire such missiles and Russia has not declared war on the alliance.
Why it matters: Putin's rejection eliminates what analysts like Ian Lesser of the German Marshall Fund call Russia's strongest coercive lever — its superior long-range strike capacity — from any near-term negotiation, while Zelenskyy's parallel appeal for direct talks shows Kyiv sees the window closing as US diplomatic bandwidth is absorbed by the Iran war. With talks stalled over Donbas and Ukraine refusing to cede territory, the two sides are now openly framing continued strikes as each other's strategic weakness to exploit.
