Ukraine puts Russian refineries back in the firing line, Zelensky names Patriots as the price of a pause, and Washington floats bringing Russian gas back to Europe

The refinery campaign is the lever Kyiv holds over Moscow's war income, and Kyiv is pulling it again. Russian authorities reported a major drone attack on an industrial site in the Nizhny Novgorod region overnight, and reporting based on Russian state media said the Kstovo refinery was set on fire, days after drones hit the same complex. The strike on the Rosneft owned Novokuybyshevsk refinery in Samara came on Friday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of ignoring Washington's position. Ukrainian officials answered that the 30 day halt, conveyed by Jared Kushner, was a proposal and never an agreement.

Zelensky has now priced the pause. Ukraine is striking refineries, he argues, because Russia keeps striking Ukraine's power grid, gas system and refineries, and Kyiv cannot leave those attacks unanswered. If Washington wants the refinery strikes stopped, it can supply Patriot systems for a month, and Ukraine would match the month. The administration approved the sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine on October 30, a story this site covered last week, but Zelensky points out that a sale delivers in years, not weeks. His ask is for missiles out of American and European stockpiles now, replaced later by the purchase. A local truce in the Kherson region ended on Sunday after Russia declined to extend it.

The gas proposal runs in the opposite direction. The Journal reports that envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner raised the idea in Moscow and Kyiv in September: Russian gas would flow through Ukraine's pipelines again and be sold to Europe through an American intermediary, Ukraine would collect transit fees, and Russia's proceeds would sit in an escrow account in a third country so the money could not fund the war. European officials want none of it. European Union law requires Russian gas imports to end by 2027, Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen has rejected a return to Russian supply even after a peace, and Russian gas has already fallen from 45 percent to 11 percent of European consumption. Moscow has resisted the American proposals so far, and Reuters noted it could not independently verify the Journal's account. Winter is the deadline pressing on all three capitals.