President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine would resume attacks on Russian oil refineries and criticized the “dangerous” lifting of U.S. restrictions on intelligence sharing and Starlink satellite internet services.
Ukraine’s leader said he had halted attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure for three days after the United States suddenly announced an “energy ceasefire” initiative. But given Russia’s continued attacks on energy facilities in Ukraine, President Zelenskiy told the Financial Times: “We are done.”
On Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Ukraine attempted a major attack on a Russian oil refinery in Ryazan overnight. Ukraine has not yet commented.
‘I don’t want to get involved’: Zelensky’s dissatisfaction with President Trump’s energy ceasefire
Also on Thursday, drones struck two chemical tankers and set them ablaze near Romania’s Black Sea coast, raising new security concerns along a key shipping lane used by Ukraine. The search for seven missing sailors was underway.
The attack is the latest in a series of attacks on merchant ships in the western Black Sea.
Romanian President Nixor Dan said the two vessels had been attacked by drones, but he did not say whether Russia was responsible, but Reuters quoted a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military official as saying the drones came from Russia.
Zelenskiy’s comments to the FT exposed growing dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump, who last week announced a controversial deal to buy Russian diesel. President Trump is increasing pressure on Ukraine to stop attacking Moscow’s oil refineries as it seeks to cut energy costs ahead of midterm elections.
President Zelenskiy criticized President Trump’s willingness to strike business deals with Russia and the U.S. president’s apparent admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also told the FT that Ukrainian military officials were told by the U.S. that “if they don’t stop[the energy attack]they will block our intelligence.”
And on Wednesday, Ukraine announced that Starlink had restricted some military internet services and disrupted major operations, raising alarm in both Kiev and its European allies.
Trump posted on social media last week that Putin had agreed to supply his country’s diesel fuel to the market as the US president works to reduce energy costs. The move drew bipartisan criticism and angered European allies.
On Monday, just hours after the US president said an “energy ceasefire” was in effect, Russian forces launched a new attack on Ukraine, a step that neither Moscow nor Kiev officially confirmed.
In the preceding weeks, Russian and Ukrainian militaries stepped up airstrikes against each other’s energy infrastructure amid a relative lull in activity on the battlefield.
On Thursday, President Putin warned that there would be “consequences” if Ukraine continued its attacks on Russia’s energy, industrial and commercial infrastructure. “Yesterday, they tried to attack several refineries. The attacks were in a few places and were not very serious, but the attacks still continue,” Putin told participants at the Derovaya Russian Business Forum via video link.
“They should have carefully considered the consequences before taking that step.”
The Trump administration had warned Ukraine and its European allies that if they did not halt a barrage of attacks on Russian energy facilities, the United States could halt intelligence sharing and European purchases of American weapons destined for Kiev.
Information sharing will be invaluable to Ukraine’s defense efforts against Russian ballistic missile attacks, providing data on the location of missile launchers and when and where attacks will be directed.
In the days that followed, Trump administration officials, including the president, insisted that such intelligence sharing was continuing. But what explains the lack of missile warning?
When asked for an explanation from Kiev, U.S. officials blamed the weather. However, Ukrainian authorities suspected it was intentional. “The US says it was a failure,” a European official told CNN. “But that can’t be true.”
“This will give the Russians real influence on the front lines once we have effectively stopped their advance and lifted the occupation of their territory,” a Ukrainian official told CNN.
Local officials say the lack of information has been exacerbated by Elon Musk’s Starlink restricting some internet services in Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said they were caught off guard by the restrictions on the military version of Starlink, called StarShield.
“At the moment, Starshield operations have resumed and are continuing,” a Ukrainian Defense Ministry official told CNN on Thursday. The official added that the ministry was consulting with all stakeholders “to clarify the full causes and circumstances of yesterday’s restrictions.”
But Zelenskiy suggested that some restrictions still exist. On Thursday morning, Ukraine’s president said Russia had launched more than 850 attack drones since midnight “at a time when the speed of our defense capabilities is being artificially limited.”
President Zelenskyy earlier said Ukraine’s military was using satellite systems to defend against Moscow’s Shahid jet-powered drone, and that Russia was trying to take advantage of the chaos.
Denis Shinik, Ukraine’s top diplomat in Washington, also told CNN that StarShield’s speed has improved but not fully recovered, adding: “We hope everything will return to its previous level.”
A Ukrainian official told CNN that Kiev has not received a response from SpaceX or the Pentagon.
Musk said Wednesday that the StarShield system is owned and controlled by the U.S. government, and that limiting its speed and use is up to the U.S. military and the president. He added that Starlink is a commercial service owned and managed by SpaceX and is limited to civil or defense operations.
Musk said Starlink “is inappropriate as a commercial enterprise and cannot be used for offensive military operations.”
CNN has reached out to the Department of Defense for comment. A senior U.S. official told CNN: “There was never a request like that (for restrictions) from the president.”
Zelenskiy has spent the past week trying to drum up support from European leaders. On Wednesday, he met with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and King Charles in London.
