In a sharp, defiant rebuke of Washington’s shifting stance on the ongoing war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that Kyiv will immediately resume targeted strikes on Russian oil refinery infrastructure, after confirming he paused such attacks for three days at the explicit request of the United States. During that three-day window, Zelensky charged in an interview with the Financial Times while in London, Russia never halted its own bombardment of Ukrainian energy facilities – leaving Kyiv with no choice but to lift its self-imposed restriction. “We’re done,” Zelensky stated plainly, marking a sharp departure from his more restrained tone in recent weeks.
The Ukrainian leader went further, levelling serious accusations that the U.S. under the Trump administration has withdrawn core forms of military support to pressure Kyiv into abandoning its strikes on Russian energy assets. These cuts include halting critical intelligence sharing related to incoming Russian strikes, as well as intentionally slowing Starlink satellite internet services that are integral to Ukrainian military operations across the front line. Zelensky noted that the pressure campaign came after the U.S. struck a new deal to import Russian diesel.
The dispute traces back to a so-called “energy ceasefire” proposal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend. Zelensky initially confirmed he would accept the terms of the truce – which would have restricted strikes on energy infrastructure on both sides – only if Moscow also agreed to abide by it. But within hours of the proposal being made public, Zelensky said Russia violated the framework by launching new strikes that cut power to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians. The Kremlin has never confirmed it agreed to the ceasefire deal at all.
During an interview with Piers Morgan on Wednesday evening, Zelensky openly acknowledged feeling betrayed by the U.S. following the withdrawal of key support. He told the Financial Times that Ukrainian defense officials received a direct warning from their U.S. counterparts: if Kyiv refused to end its strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, U.S. intelligence support would be blocked. For Ukraine’s military, U.S. early-warning intelligence on incoming Russian aerial attacks is a critical component of its air defense systems, allowing forces to position and intercept strikes before they hit civilian and military targets. Starlink satellite uplinks, meanwhile, are woven into nearly every layer of Ukraine’s war effort, from frontline communications to logistical coordination.
Some reports have suggested the slowdown in Starlink services stemmed from an unplanned technical fault, but SpaceX owner Elon Musk has indirectly pushed back on that claim, pointing instead to direction from the Trump administration. Zelensky echoed that assessment during his London interview, saying “It was not a technical problem, it was the will” of the U.S. administration.
Zelensky outlined one condition under which Ukraine would resume a pause on strikes against Russian oil infrastructure, which Kyiv views as a key target to cut off critical revenue streams that fund Moscow’s full-scale invasion: the U.S. must provide additional Patriot air defense missile systems to shore up Ukraine’s vulnerable air defense networks.
In comments that highlight the growing rift between Kyiv and the Trump White House, Zelensky questioned the U.S. president’s long-documented affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin, an autocratic leader who launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. When asked about repairing fractured relations between the U.S. and Ukraine, Zelensky pushed responsibility back to Washington, noting “We didn’t destroy any relationship.”