Ukraine to restart strikes on Russian oil refineries, Zelensky says

Ukraine will resume strikes on Russian oil refineries, Volodymyr Zelensky has said, as he accused the US of withdrawing crucial support.

The Ukrainian president said he had restricted such attacks for three days at Washington’s behest, while Russia had continued striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure. “We’re done,” he told the Financial Times.

Zelensky also accused the US of withdrawing intelligence-sharing on Russian strikes to pressure Kyiv into ending the attacks altogether after it struck a deal to import Russian diesel, and said a slowdown of Starlink satellite services used by Ukraine’s military was deliberate.

He previously said he would agree to the so-called “energy ceasefire” announced by US President Donald Trump on Sunday if Moscow also abided by it.

But Zelensky accused Russia of ignoring the proposed deal within hours of it being announced, with strikes leaving hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without power. The Kremlin never said it agreed to the deal.

Zelensky agreed that he felt betrayed by the US when asked by Piers Morgan on Wednesday night, after Washington appeared to withdraw key elements of its support.

The Ukrainian leader told the FT that Ukrainian officials had been told by US counterparts that “if you will not stop [the strikes], we will block intelligence”.

Ukraine’s military relies on US early-warning alerts of incoming Russian aerial attacks to mount air defences, limiting successful strikes, while Starlink internet uplinks are used throughout its war effort.

There were suggestions that the slowdown to Starlink services was due to a technical fault – something owner Elon Musk appeared to deny was the case, suggesting it was the Trump administration. Trump denied halting intelligence-sharing.

“It was not a technical problem, it was the will,” Zelensky told the FT while in London.

He said he would now only halt strikes on Russian oil infrastructure – which Kyiv says are vital to cutting off revenue streams to its war machine – if the US supplied more Patriot air defence missiles.

Ukraine has suffered a shortage of the US-made defences since the outbreak of the Iran war consumed stockpiles.

Striking a more defiant tone than recently, the Ukrainian president told the newspaper his American counterpart had an affinity for autocratic leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

He said it was not up to him to mend US-Ukrainian relations given the events of the past week. “We didn’t destroy any relationship.”

Tensions have previously frayed between the two leaders. After returning to the White House last year, the pair shared a fiery Oval Office meeting in which Trump implied Zelensky was the main block to a peace deal.

Zelensky has since walked a careful diplomatic line, showing willingness towards US-brokered deals while stressing that the terms of any peace deal must be just.

But he criticised the agreement between Russia and the US to release 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the US and global marketplace, struck last week, as the US effectively investing in Russia’s war effort.

That deal was the latest effort by Trump to lower fuel prices in the US ahead of the midterm elections, after months spent grappling with the political consequences of the Iran war.

That conflict has sent the cost of petrol – and in particular diesel – skyrocketing, souring his standing with the American public.

Zelensky told the FT: “The question will be: when will the next deal be? Maybe it will be gas. Definitely it will be gas.”