Putin, speaking to a state television interviewer also said Russia needed to boost its air defence capacity to counter intensified Ukrainian drone attacks aimed mainly at its oil industry.
He said Russia was coping well in tackling fuel supply problems linked to the Ukrainian strikes.
Putin acknowledged earlier on Sunday at a meeting in the Kremlin with government ministers and other officials the strikes had triggered fuel shortages in various Russian regions but that Russia was dealing with them.
In his television interview, Putin said that Ukraine had proposed a mutual halt to long-range strikes as a step towards peace. But Moscow saw it as a means to relieve pressure on Kyiv's forces along the two sides' 1250km front line and would not be distracted by it.
"It is clear why this proposal is being made, because our counter-strikes deep into Ukrainian territory are much stronger, have greater impact and are, frankly, more destructive," Putin said.
"Given their catastrophic shortage of personnel, the Ukrainian Armed Forces apparently believe this could be their salvation. But saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote an open letter to Putin this month proposing a face-to-face meeting, which the Russian leader has rejected.
In the television interview, Putin said that Ukrainian attacks were "aimed at diverting our attention and forces from achieving the main objectives – the complete liberation of Donbas and Novorossiya," a reference to the two regions of the Donbas and the adjacent regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Putin has long insisted that Ukraine abandon its remaining positions in Donetsk Region in Donbas as a key condition of any peace deal. Seven months after its 2022 invasion, Russia annexed the four regions - the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Donbas, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which it only partly controls.
Addressing Ukraine's medium-and long-range drone campaign, Putin said: "The first task is to quickly and significantly ramp up production of those air defence systems that are most needed."
"All the strikes, wherever they hit our infrastructure, absolutely do not affect the situation on the front, on the line of combat contact," he said.
Putin said Russia was expecting a resumption of US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war and a new visit to Moscow by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner once the "hot phase" of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran was resolved.
Earlier at a conference of his ruling United Russia party, Putin acknowledged the country was "going through a difficult period" but insisted that the government would "honour all its social obligations" to citizens.
"We are going through a difficult period but this has taught us a great deal, and allowed us to grasp the very essence of what it means to be a Russian citizen."
Meanwhile, Russian attacks killed at least four people on Sunday in Ukraine's southeast and northeast, regional officials said.
Strikes on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia killed two people and injured 16, Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram. Pictures posted online by the governor showed a building ablaze and parts of a neighbourhood reduced to rubble.
In the northeastern border region of Kharkiv, a frequent Russian target, a missile strike on the town of Zmiiv killed one person and injured eight, including two children, Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Police in the Kharkiv region also said an officer was killed as he was trying to organise the evacuation of residents in another community further north. In the Sumy region, also on the Russian border, the regional governor said an elderly woman was killed during the day in an area near the border.
