Ukraine to resume strikes on Russian refineries, Zelenskiy says

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine will restart strikes on Russia’s oil refineries as he expressed anger over a “dangerous” withdrawal of US intelligence and simultaneous weakening of Starlink satellite internet service at a time of intense Russian attacks. “The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done,” Zelenskiy said in a defiant interview with the Financial Times in London. He also lambasted Washington’s eagerness to strike business deals with Moscow and US president Donald Trump’s apparent admiration for Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.Asked to explain the two leaders’ relationship, Zelenskiy said Trump had an instinctive affinity for autocrats and the super-wealthy. “He [Trump] speaks about it openly and loudly that he loves such people and he respects such people. Because for him people who can be leaders 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, it means they can be very strong.”Washington has piled pressure on Kyiv to stop hitting Russia’s refineries, claiming that a moratorium, alongside a US deal with Moscow to buy hundreds of thousands of tonnes of Russian diesel, is essential to bring down US fuel prices.READ MOREZelenskiy said he had paused energy strikes for three days to comply with US wishes, while Moscow continued to pound Ukrainian energy infrastructure and kill civilians – more than 100 in the last week.Despite Ukraine’s pause, Zelenskiy said his forces had been left without US early-warning alerts for incoming ballistic missiles, while Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications service had been slowed down across the country, hampering frontline operations and medium-range strikes against Russian military sites.Volodymyr Zelenskiy with British prime minister Andy Burnham outside 10 Downing Street on Wednesday. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images Zelenskiy said Ukrainian military officials were told by their US counterparts that “if you will not stop [the energy strikes], we will block intelligence”, although it was subsequently presented to Kyiv as a technical glitch. He also dismissed the idea that failures of the Starlink satellite system might have been caused by a fault. “It was not a technical problem, it was the will.”Trump earlier denied that Washington had cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine. Musk posted on X late on Wednesday that Starshield systems, the military-grade satellite network built on Starlink technology, were “owned and controlled by the US government”, adding: “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” referring to Trump. The breakdown in relations between Kyiv and Washington is the worst crisis between Ukraine and its most important security partner since Trump and his senior aides gave Zelenskiy a public dressing-down in the Oval Office in February last year.Zelenskiy stressed that Ukraine’s relationship with the US as an “honest” and “strategic” partner was essential in the fight against Russia, comparing it to Kyiv’s relationship with the UK. “Russia can fight ... all of us but only when we are not together.”But he made clear it was not up to him to mend fences with the White House, saying: “We didn’t destroy any relationship.” Asked whether Ukraine would halt energy strikes even if Russia continued, as a way of repairing relations with the White House, he said he could only agree if in return he was given more US-made Patriot interceptors. That was the “minimum” that he asked for, he said, adding that when he asked for more air defences the US response was to weaken Starlink’s service.Zelenskiy said that stopping energy strikes also risked only encouraging the US and Russia to pursue more deals, potentially providing more money for Putin’s war machine.“The question will be when will the next deal be? Maybe it will be gas. Definitely it will be gas.”“Business is interesting between the United States and Russia,” he added. “I think that they [America] want to have energy projects and ... [that] of course for them is difficult to have when there is war in Europe.”But Zelenskiy suggested Trump could face a public backlash. “This politically is not simple [in the US], because everybody will want to ask how it can be when some people are surviving, fighting, dying – and you make ... business with the guys with such aggression.”The Ukrainian president was speaking in central London after a day of meetings with Britain’s King Charles, UK prime minister Andy Burnham and defence officials. The site of a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Kyiv on Wednesday. Photograph: Maxym Marusenko/EPA On Thursday he will address EU leaders in Brussels to plead for more robust sanctions against Russia and a faster release of EU funds to assist Ukraine’s war effort.Zelenskiy said fighting without the US would be “very difficult” and conceded Europe would be stronger if truly united.But a spate of elections in Europe over the next 12 months, with possible gains for pro-Russian parties, could bring “a lot of challenges” for Ukraine, he added. Asked about French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s vow to stop financing Ukraine, he said France had a lot to lose because experience of the Ukrainian battlefield was essential for its defence companies. “It’s a win-win.”In an implicit response to Trump’s call at the weekend for him to resign, Zelenskiy said it was “rhetoric” which Americans would not like, and which would only boost Putin. “For me, it doesn’t matter. What matters ... is that Putin feels no pressure. When he feels no pressure, he attacks, because he, you know ... got a tremendous kick out of it.”“The division between Europe and the United States, or Ukraine and the United States, helps him [Putin] to unite his nation. It makes him feel success[ful]. It helps him to feel that he’s not losing, that he is prevailing.”Zelenskiy went on to say that Putin was not prevailing but that the battle for supremacy in military technology – such as drones – waxed and waned, with Ukraine in the ascendancy one month and Russia the next.Unfortunately, he added, the cutting off of intelligence and interruption of Starlink by the US have been “dangerous” for Ukraine. “We will find a way out ... but it’s better not to give him [Putin] the new life or the new will to fight.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026[ Daniel McLaughlin in Lviv: Ukrainians recoil at Trump's pressure campaignOpens in new window ]