By Ronald Popeski
June 28 (Reuters) - 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 (775-mile) 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.
"Given their catastrophic shortage of personnel, the Ukrainian Armed Forces apparently believe this could be their salvation. But saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans."
The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not immediately respond to a request, submitted during late-night hours in Ukraine, for comment on Putin's remarks.
Zelenskiy wrote an open letter to Putin this month proposing a face-to-face meeting, which the Russian leader has rejected.
In the television interview, Putin said that Ukrainian attacks were "aimed at diverting our attention and forces from achieving the main objectives – the complete liberation of Donbas and Novorossiya," a reference to the two regions of the Donbas and the adjacent regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Putin has long insisted that Ukraine abandon its remaining positions in Donetsk Region in Donbas as a key condition of any peace deal. Seven months after its 2022 invasion, Russia annexed the four regions — the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Donbas, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which it only partly controls.
UKRAINIAN DRONE ATTACKS
Addressing Ukraine's medium- and long-range drone campaign, Putin said: "The first task is to quickly and significantly ramp up production of those air defence systems that are most needed."
"All the strikes, wherever they hit our infrastructure, absolutely do not affect the situation on the front, on the line of combat contact," he said.
Putin said Russia was expecting a resumption of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to end the war and a new visit to Moscow by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner once the "hot phase" of the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran was resolved.
He appeared to agree with comments last week by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that no formal agreement had been reached at Putin's talks in Alaska last year with U.S. President Donald Trump, although U.S. proposals had been discussed.
"Nobody signed anything, but we talked about certain possibilities for ending the conflict in Ukraine," Putin said.
The U.S. side, he said, had asked for compromises which he said were contained in proposals put forward by the Americans in the talks.
In his comments, Putin also suggested that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with whom he held two days of talks this week, could assist with peace talks.
He made no reference to Ukraine's allegations that Russia was trying to involve Belarus further in the conflict. Belarus allowed its territory to be used to launch Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine but Lukashenko has pledged to send no forces into combat.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Ronald Popeski; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
