Vladimir Putin threatens to ‘finish off’ Ukrainian troops — after warmonger’s bold violation of US-backed partial cease-fire

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to “finish off” Ukrainian troops on Friday, shortly after the warmonger ordered strikes on Ukraine’s largest oil and gas company — in a bold violation of the US-backed partial cease-fire.

The shameless attack damaged production facilities and equipment owned by the state-owned gas producer Naftogaz and caused power outages throughout the central city of Poltava.

It marked the 18th attack on Naftogaz infrastructure since Russia’s invasion in 2022 and the eighth this year, the company said in a statement.

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Civilian infrastructure and residential buildings were also hit in the strike, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“The Russian aggressor cynically continues to lie about its aspirations for peace, deliberately attacking civilian objects and endangering civilians,” it said in a Telegram post.

The shelling followed an attack on another Ukrainian energy facility in Kherson earlier this week, just days after Kyiv and Moscow agreed Tuesday to pause energy infrastructure attacks as part of a US-backed deal. The warring countries also agreed to stop military strikes in the Black Sea.

George Barros, the Russia team lead at the Institute for the Study of War, told The Post that the Russian dictator is “stringing the White House along” by agreeing to a limited cease-fire — that he ultimately benefits from.

“What Putin is trying to do is string the White House along and agree to these limited things that are not going to be determinative to the outcome of the war,” Barros said.

The analyst said the partial cease-fire agreement largely benefits Moscow, protecting fleets in the Black Sea and halting attacks on its energy infrastructure — after it has already decimated most of Ukraine’s. 

“There’s no peace deal in sight for the most important place where all the fighting is actually happening, which are the fields and villages and massive, 600-mile long frontline in Ukraine,” Barros said. 

The US should now “explore the option of playing the cards that we have against Russia,” Barros urged.

Meanwhile, Putin called on his troops to continue stepping up their attacks. 

“I was saying not so long ago: ‘We will finish them off.’ There are reasons to believe that we will finish them off,” Putin said Friday while attending the International Arctic Forum in Murmansk, according to the AFP.

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“We are gradually, not as fast as some would like, but nevertheless persistently and confidently moving toward achieving all the goals stated at the beginning of the special operation,” the Kremlin leader added.

The partial cease-fire agreement — which the White House announced Tuesday following high-stakes talks with the two foes in Saudi Arabia — does not include other critical and civilian infrastructure, which Russia has ramped up strikes on in recent days, including in Odesa, Kharkiv, Dniprov and Zaporizhzhia. 

The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 89 of 163 Russian drones launched overnight Thursday.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Thursday railed against Putin, warning that the warmonger “does not share President Trump’s desire for peace.”

“President Putin has ordered salvo after salvo of missiles and drones to strike Ukrainian apartments, killing non-combatant women and children,” Wicker said in a speech on the Senate floor. 

“These are not the gestures of a statesman who wants to negotiate peace,” he continued. “We’re dealing with a tyrant who speaks the language of war and terror.”

At Friday’s summit, Putin also called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s removal — and revealed plans to replace him with a “transitional administration.”

The Russian leader’s comments come as Washington works to re-establish relations with Moscow and engage with both Moscow and Kyiv in separate peace talks.

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After the discussions in Saudi Arabia this week, the White House said the countries had agreed to “develop measures to implement the agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities.”

But the ongoing strikes have led Ukrainian and European leaders to accuse Putin of trying to prolong cease-fire talks without any serious intent of ending the war.

Even Trump, whose envoy helped secure the truce in the vital Black Sea trade route, called out Russia for “dragging their feet” in negotiations, after Putin immediately went back on his word and launched a drone attack Wednesday on Mykolaiv, a port city in the northwest region of the Black Sea.

“I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they’re dragging their feet. I’ve done it over the years,” President Trump said in an interview on Newsmax following Tuesday’s talks.

With Post wires