Ukraine to restart strikes on Russian oil refineries as US blocks Kyiv’s access to Starlink and intelligence

The Ukrainian military is to resume its airstrikes on Russian oil refineries after pausing them for three days at the request of the United States, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Financial Times (FT) in an interview published on Thursday.

Though Kyiv had observed the three-day moratorium, the Russian military had ignored it and continued to strike Ukrainian energy facilities and kill civilians, Zelensky said, killing over 100 Ukrainians in the past week alone.

“We’re done,” Zelensky said in the unusually frank interview, which he gave during a visit to the UK, in which he criticised US President Donald Trump for wanting to make business deals with Russia and for the natural affinity he appears to feel for authoritarian leaders.

According to Zelensky, the Trump administration threatened to end its intelligence sharing with Kyiv unless Ukraine agreed to halt its strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. Though Kyiv complied with Washington’s demand, it emerged on Wednesday that the Ukrainian military’s access to Starshield systems, the US-controlled military-grade satellite network built that underpins the country’s war effort, had nevertheless been curtailed.

Though the US blamed the Starlink issue on technical problems, just as it did when it withheld vital intelligence about imminent Russian missile strikes on Kyiv from Ukrainian officials earlier this week, Zelensky was unequivocal in his belief that it “was not a technical problem” but rather the “will” of the administration.

Though Zelensky and Trump have always had a volatile relationship, the events of the past week since Trump announced he'd agreed to allow the import of Russian diesel to the US despite international sanctions have brought it to its lowest point since the Ukrainian president was subjected to an extraordinary public dressing down by Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance at the White House last year.