Zelensky Defies Trump: Ukraine to Resume Refinery Strikes After 12 Hits and Broken Truce
Ukraine will restart strikes on Russian oil refineries after a brief truce ended, as Kyiv accuses Washington of limiting Starlink access and withholding missile warnings during Russian attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that Ukraine will resume strikes on Russian oil refineries, defying pressure from the United States to halt the attacks [262634]. The decision came hours after Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in Russia's Ryazan region early Thursday, following what Zelensky described as the end of a brief truce [262625].
Ukraine had paused refinery strikes to meet a demand from Washington, according to Zelensky. Ukraine says it struck 12 Russian oil refineries in September, but no new refinery strikes were reported after US President Donald Trump announced an "energy ceasefire" [261515]. Zelensky said Russia kept attacking Ukrainian energy sites after the announcement, and Moscow has not confirmed any ceasefire [261515].
The renewed strikes come amid growing tensions between Kyiv and Washington. Ukraine accused the United States this week of helping Moscow by failing to warn it of incoming missile strikes and by limiting Kyiv's military response through changes to Starlink access [262549]. Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv before air raid sirens sounded, raising fears that the United States could stop sharing launch warning data with Ukraine [261504].
Ukraine says Elon Musk's satellite internet service Starlink was restricted overnight to Wednesday as Russian missiles struck Kyiv [262400]. Starlink provides internet to Ukraine's military and has been described as the "backbone of military communications in Ukraine" [262480]. Serhii Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukraine's Defense Ministry, said the outage was "not a coincidence and is related to the current political situation" [262237].
Musk said Wednesday that Zelensky should leave his post as Ukraine's leader, insisting that any disruption to Ukraine's use of his satellite communications system was the fault of the US government, not his company [262549].
Zelensky said Ukraine is losing the support of the United States following Trump's latest agreement with Russia [262237]. Speaking in London, he said it was "painful" to watch Trump choose Russia's side. "It is painful when Trump chooses a side and it is not ours," he said. "If you are in the middle, you must stay in the middle, not on the wrong side. This is not the right side of history" [262237].
When asked if he felt betrayed, Zelensky did not deny it. "It is a pity that we are losing a strong partner," he said. "We cannot be weak. If we are, we will not survive. We will not sell our country" [262237].
His comments came after Trump announced he would lift sanctions to buy Russian diesel, reversing a bipartisan agreement he signed only weeks ago to tighten sanctions on Russian energy [262237]. Analysts see the move as a signal of Washington's shifting position toward Moscow [262237].
Zelensky received a warm reception in London, where King Charles III greeted him at Buckingham Palace and he later met Prime Minister Andy Burnham at Downing Street [262237]. Burnham promised the UK would keep supporting Ukraine and announced that British missiles against Russia's new generation of drones would be delivered earlier than planned [262237]. However, Burnham avoided criticizing Trump, saying his priority is to "repair bridges" with Washington [262237].
Meanwhile, Russia continued its attacks on Ukraine. Russian strikes hit several Ukrainian energy facilities and a data center overnight, according to reports [262057]. Russian strikes also forced Ukraine's largest steelworks to begin shutting down [261504]. Zelensky said Russia attacked Ukraine for a second night in a row, with a residential building and a heating plant hit in Kyiv [261491].
Ukraine has also struck back at Russian digital infrastructure. Ukrainian forces struck at least three major data centers owned by Yandex, Russia's largest internet company, over the past week [261537]. The attacks disrupted online services and applications that millions of Russians use daily [261537]. The outages also affected users in Central Asia, where much of the region's internet traffic and cloud storage passes through or sits in Russia [262575].
Zelensky claimed the strikes on Russian data centers took down Russian bot networks, but technology experts say they have found no evidence to support this claim [261243].
In response to the ongoing crisis, Ukraine won a seat on the UN Human Rights Council [261504].