Exclusive | Putin plots payback for Ukraine energy attacks, tells US: Now its our turn

WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin privately informed US officials he intends to escalate his attacks on Ukraine following stunning drone attacks on nearly all of Russia’s oil refineries, The Post has learned.Putin’s ominous remarks could mean a bleak winter for war-ravaged Ukrainians after the tyrant’s ruthless assault on electrical infrastructure earlier in the nearly five-year conflict.“Putin is now going to hit [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] hard, and he’s told us he’s going to,” an American official told The Post.The Russian leader conveyed to American officials that “now it’s our turn, and we’re going at them.”President Trump has urged Ukraine to halt its attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, blaming the shock-and-awe offensive for skyrocketing diesel fuel prices.

Zelensky hasn’t heeded Trump’s call for restraint and unleashed the largest-ever drone attack this week, with Russian officials reporting the “most massive” attack yet on Moscow, hitting the city’s main oil refinery.The US official told The Post that “hawks” within Ukraine have “carried the day” in pursuing ambitious targets within Russia.“And now [Putin] is going to fire back, and that can’t be stopped.”Still, the official said Putin and Zelensky are “closer than people think” to ending the conflict.“It’s just that when they send these big bombs in there and they take out refineries, everyone says … ‘here we go again.’”Putin’s lust for land remains the largest obstacle to a peace settlement, with the former KGB agent seeking to complete his conquest of the Donetsk province, whose northern towns are heavily fortified by Ukraine.”The territory” is the primary point of resistance for Putin, the US official said.“That’s really the issue.”Ukrainian attacks have struck all of Russia’s main oil refineries this year, as well as many mid-sized facilities, in an effort to sap the Russian war machine of ...