The U.S. Department of Defense has called oil refineries in Russia "civilian targets," while the Congress criticized this position.
This became known from a dialog between Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Celeste Wallander and Congressman Austin Scott during a hearing in Congress.
Thus, Austin Scott asked why Ukraine has no right to attack oil and gas infrastructure in Russia while Russia itself regularly destroys infrastructure facilities in Ukraine.
"We have concerns about striking at civilian targets. This is Ukraine's sovereign decision, but we express those concerns," she replied, emphasizing that "Ukraine holds itself to the highest standards of observing the laws of this conflict, and this is one of the elements of European democracy"
In turn, the member of the U.S. House of Representatives said that Ukraine cannot ''sit back and just take the punches". The Assistant Secretary of Defense finally agreed that destroyed Russian infrastructures are owned by private Russian citizens who are part of Putin's regime.