KYIV — Ukraine has resumed its attacks on Russian refineries with a strike at an installation in the Ryazan region, the regional governor said on Thursday, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy voiced his anger at a “dangerous” withdrawal of US intelligence.
Since US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine on Sunday, Kyiv had refrained from attacking Russian refineries, which the US leader had blamed for raising diesel prices on global markets.
“The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done,” Zelensky told the Financial Times in London in a fiery interview.
The comments by Zelensky are the latest that publicly lay bare the growing frustration he has with Trump, deepening the already fractious relationship between the two leaders.
Pavel Malkov, the governor of Ryazan, said in a post on Telegram that a major Ukrainian drone attack on the region had sparked a fire at an oil refinery. “The material damage is now being assessed. Emergency services are working at the scene,” he said.
Zelensky said on Wednesday Russia’s continued attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure had left 600,000 people without power. He warned that Ukraine would not suspend its own attacks indefinitely if Russia did not reciprocate and also criticised what he said was Trump’s favouritism toward Russia.
According to the FT, Zelensky condemned Trump’s willingness to strike business deals with Moscow as well as the US president’s apparent admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
He also said Ukrainian military officials were told by their US counterparts that “if you will not stop [the energy strikes], we will block intelligence”.
Zelensky’s warning that strikes on Russian refineries will resume came after another interview where he voiced anger over Trump’s fuel deal with Moscow.
When asked by British media personality Piers Morgan if he had been “betrayed” by the Trump administration, Zelensky answered, “Yes,” describing the agreement as a “simple victory” for the Kremlin.
“It’s a pity that we are losing a strong partner,” the Ukrainian president told Morgan on Wednesday during his YouTube talk show, “Piers Morgan Uncensored.”
Last week, Trump wrote on social media that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin agreed to supply markets with his country’s diesel fuel as the US president works to bring down energy costs ahead of the midterm elections. That move drew bipartisan criticism and sparked anger among European allies.
On Monday, Russian forces launched fresh attacks on Ukraine just hours after the US president stated an “energy ceasefire” had come into effect – a measure that neither Moscow nor Kyiv had publicly confirmed.
In a clip shared on X from the interview with Morgan, the Ukrainian president said: “This is our country, our body, our home, our children… That’s why it’s painful when Trump chooses one side.”
“If you’re in the middle, you have to stay in the middle. Not on the wrong side,” said Zelensky. “This is not the right side of history.”
Both Russian and Ukrainian troops have intensified aerial attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks, as movements on the battlefield remain relatively stagnant.
The Trump administration had warned Ukraine and allies in Europe that the US could suspend intelligence sharing and European purchases of US weapons for Kyiv if it did not halt deep strikes on Russian energy facilities.
Information sharing is invaluable to Ukrainian defense efforts against Russian ballistic missile attacks by giving the locations of missile launchers along with data on where the strikes are being directed, and when.
In the days that followed, Trump administration officials, including the president, insisted such intelligence sharing continued.
When asked by Kyiv for an explanation, US officials blamed the weather. But Ukrainian officials suspected it was deliberate. “America says it was a failure,” a European official told CNN. “But it can’t be the truth.”
“This will give Russians a real leverage on a frontline at the time when we effectively stopped their advances, and de-occupy the territories,” a Ukrainian official told CNN.
On Thursday morning, Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 850 attack drones since midnight “at a time when the speed of our defensive capabilities is being artificially restricted.”
Source: Saudi Gazette