Speaking at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, Putin said the restoration of damaged facilities must be carried out 'at a qualitatively new technological level.' He tasked the government with adopting a corresponding program.
'Of course, there are no critical consequences from such attacks, there never were, and there cannot be,' Putin said, while acknowledging that the strikes on industrial and infrastructure sites 'cause harm' to the Russian economy. 'But they do harm us, that is obvious. We understand, see, and know this,' he added.
According to The Moscow Times, Ukrainian drones have attacked Russian oil refineries more than 70 times since the start of the year, halting operations at dozens of major plants. Oil processing volumes fell to their lowest since 2002 and are currently a third below the seasonal norm, according to estimates by Rystad Energy.
The campaign against the marketplace Wildberries has cost it 23 warehouses and a quarter of its total logistics capacity. Including burned goods, the damage amounts to nearly 1 trillion rubles. Since July, drone strikes have halted operations at grain ports in the Sea of Azov, and in August shipments stopped at all grain terminals in Novorossiysk. Grain exports, 90% of which went through the Azov-Black Sea basin, have been virtually paralyzed.
Putin said the Ukrainian attacks are affecting economic growth rates. 'As statistical data show, the economic dynamics are generally modest,' he said, noting that GDP grew by 0.6% in the first half of the year—almost half the 1% growth of the previous year and nearly seven times slower than in 2023-24.