NEW YORK, April 3. /TASS/. The United States is unable to persuade Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian infrastructure facilities, namely oil refineries, amid a lack of military aid to Kiev, Bloomberg reports, citing a source.

According to a European official, Washington’s leverage on Ukraine is diminishing as the US Congress keeps delaying its decision on a new aid package. However, in the official’s words, Kiev is also suffering damage from attacks on Russian targets because they are causing Russia to retaliate.

The official noted that the damage done to Ukrainian infrastructure facilities in the past few weeks was probably the worst since the beginning of the conflict. This will have long-term strategic consequences, exacerbating ammunition shortages, the official told Bloomberg.

The Financial Times reported earlier that the US had urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure. According to the newspaper, Washington is worried that apart from driving up global oil prices, the attacks may push Russia to target enemy infrastructure facilities, on which Western countries also rely. Those particularly include the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s oil pipeline that is used by Western companies, namely Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in this regard that Moscow wanted Washington to urge Kiev not just to stop attacks on Russian energy facilities but to quit their terrorist activities altogether, primarily those that target residential buildings.

US officials declined to comment on the substance of the Financial Times report, only reiterating that Washington did not encourage or enable Kiev’s attack on targets inside Russia.