80% of Ukrainians believe that oil refineries in Russia should be targeted, even if US limits aid — KIIS

Should oil refineries be targeted, even if the US stops providing intelligence?

Most Ukrainians believe that strikes on Russian oil refineries should continue, even if the U.S. stops or limits its assistance.

This is evidenced by data from a sociological survey conducted by KMIS, according to Censor.NET.

Details

Respondents were asked about the strikes on Russian oil refineries.

"The scenario included (a) a lack of reciprocal steps on Russia's part—meaning that it could continue to attack Ukraine's energy infrastructure, civilian facilities, and so on—and (b) threats from the U.S. to withdraw its support," the KMIS noted.

Indeed, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians—80%—believe that strikes on oil refineries should be carried out, even if the U.S. were to halt or limit its assistance.

Only 11% said that strikes on oil refineries should be stopped (the remaining 8% were undecided).

Methodology

The survey was conducted from October 16 to 25, 2026. A total of 828 respondents were surveyed.

Under normal circumstances, the formal statistical error of such a sample (with a confidence level of 0.95 and taking into account a design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.4% for values close to 50%, 3.8% for values close to 25%, 2.7% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.9% for indicators close to 5%.

The U.S.-Russia Diesel Deal and Threats to Ukraine

On October 9, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he had spoken with Russian dictator Putin, with whom he had agreed on the supply of diesel fuel from Russia to markets in the United States and around the world.
According to him, Russia will "immediately" supply more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel to the U.S. and global markets, another 500,000 metric tons in November, and another million metric tons "immediately afterward."
The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that, at Trump's direction, the Office of Foreign Assets Control is immediately issuing a temporary general license to allow the supply of Russian diesel fuel to the global market.
In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia's authorization to sell petroleum products "an investment in war" and urged the U.S. to have a firm conversation with Moscow and impose sanctions under the Lindsey Graham Act.
Axios reported that during talks in Miami, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner allegedly warned the Ukrainian side that access to U.S. intelligence information could be cut off if Ukraine continued to carry out strikes on Russian oil refineries.
On October 11, President Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine would be ready to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries if Russia stopped striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
That same day, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the start of an energy truce between Ukraine and Russia.
In comments to Axios, Zelenskyy said that U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of the start of an "energy truce" came as a surprise to the Ukrainian side.
Later, the president stated that Ukraine is prepared to refrain from striking Russia's energy infrastructure, provided that Russia takes similar steps.