Russian President Vladimir Putin has described as absurd a proposal for Russia to halt strikes on Ukrainian targets in exchange for Ukraine stopping attacks on Russian oil facilities and ships.

Axar.az reports, citing TASS, that during the plenary session of the 23rd annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, Putin said Russia had begun responding after Ukraine attacked Russian oil refineries and civilian vessels, arguing that Moscow’s response was reciprocal.

“We are told: ‘Let them stop attacking your oil refineries, and you stop attacking their ships. Let them transport civilian cargo and agricultural products.’ But what about our other civilian cargo, such as oil and petroleum products?” Putin said.

He added that Russia would not benefit from stopping strikes on Ukrainian economic targets while Western sanctions continued to restrict the export of Russian oil and petroleum products.

“How will our diesel fuel reach the global market if sanctions remain? It won’t. And in response to this, we would have to stop striking economically sensitive targets for them. Well, you have to admit that it simply looks absurd,” Putin said.

Putin said Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries were causing damage to Russia. He claimed that following Russia’s response to Kyiv’s strikes, Ukraine’s steel industry had been destroyed.

"They partially achieved their goal because, according to our estimates, we lost approximately 1% of GDP. And deliberately, these are civilian targets, civilian targets. Well, we responded in kind. We began striking targets that are important to their economy. Now, by their own admission, they effectively have no steelmaking industry," Putin added.