The Ministry of Defense of Russia has communicated that it plans to increase the intensity of its offensives against Ukraine's infrastructure, after the Ukrainian president, Volodmir Zelenski, announced the day before his intention to increase bombings on the refineries located in Russian territory.
"Following Zelenski's statement, the Russian Armed Forces will intensify their attacks against military and military industrial facilities, as well as against related infrastructure, in Kiev and other regions of Ukraine," the Ministry warned in a statement.
The Russian Defense department has recalled the attempts by the authorities in Kiev to "disrupt the voting for the elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation through terrorist attacks against civilian targets in Russia."
In this line, the Ministry has denounced "missile and drone attacks directed against local electoral commissions, which resulted in the death of six completely peaceful citizens," in addition to attempts to organize terrorist actions with attack drones "with the aim of interrupting the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg in June 2026."
Zelenski has reiterated the idea of escalation during the press conference this Sunday alongside the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
"The Russians are intensifying the conflict. I am not surprised by Russia's hatred towards Ukraine, but I am surprised by this approach. They attacked our warehouses: Nova Poshta, Ukrposhta, and others. We gave them an appropriate response by attacking their Wildberries warehouses," he explained.
"Now they are attacking bridges," Zelenski added, referring to the bombings that have been hitting the Northern Bridge of the capital, Kiev, for the past two days. "I am surprised by this wild desire to escalate the conflict day after day. In other words, Putin bets on constant escalation. It is something he fervently desires. This is a response for everyone: for those who believe that it is enough to ask Putin to end the war for real. It will not happen. Just that simple," he added.
The Ukrainian president also took the opportunity to officialize what sources from the German government had anticipated at the beginning of Merz's visit. "We have a new support package (from Germany) for Ukraine: a comprehensive package worth more than 1.3 billion euros, which includes weapons that will help us now, as well as support for our energy sector for the winter."
In total, 15 agreements and documents have been subscribed, mostly linked to cooperation in security, production, relevant acquisitions, Ukrainian orders to the German industry, and joint projects in Ukraine.
"The total value of our agreements today exceeds 8.5 billion euros," concluded Zelenski.