Ukraine will double down on attacking Russian oil refineries in response to a new policy of airstrikes by Moscow designed to force people to abandon Kyiv and other cities, but will not target civilians, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Axar.az reports that in an interview with Reuters, Zelensky said that Ukrainian intelligence has obtained documents showing ​that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had issued a "new doctrine" of military attacks on a much broader range of civilian targets ahead of this winter.

"We saw documents and we know that they allow them ‌attack infrastructure ... logistics ... roads, schools, hospitals, to pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities," Zelensky said. "This is the goal of the operation."

Driving the shift in policy, Zelensky said, was Putin's desire to appear strong at a time when his military was losing ground in a key frontline region and sustaining higher levels of casualties.