Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that military strikes against Russian energy infrastructure would resume, despite US President Donald Trump’s insistence that the attacks stop.
In an interview with London Financial Times (FT), Zelenskyy said: “The blockade (on attacks on energy infrastructure) is lifted. We are finished.”
The announcement comes after Russia reported Ukrainian attacks on oil processing plants in Ryazan, where a fire broke out, and in Saratov.
kyiv had refrained from launching attacks to give Trump’s “energy ceasefire” a chance of success.
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised “the vigorous efforts (by the United States) to launch the peace process” and asserted that by resuming attacks, Ukraine was “entering into a serious conflict with the peace efforts of the United States and American negotiators.”
However, Russia did not pay attention to Trump and continued to strike Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure, for example on Wednesday, when Russian strikes cut off electricity to 600,000 Ukrainian citizens.
Trump calls resumption of strikes a ‘disgrace’
Trump said Ukraine’s new strikes on Russian oil refineries were a “disgrace” in an interview with Newsmax, published Thursday.
Trump claimed that Zelensky was less willing than Putin to reach a compromise to end the war.
“I think actually they would both like it to end. But I think I find Zelensky more difficult to deal with than Putin,” he said.
Kyiv denounces dangerous lack of American intelligence
Ukraine had accepted Trump’s public proposal – although it was not informed in advance of a “cease-fire” – but it appeared to have helped little in the eyes of US leaders.
To that end, Zelensky this week denounced the “dangerous” lack of information from U.S. intelligence services as well as limiting access to the SpaceX Starlink satellite for Ukrainian troops after Trump announced a number of decisions last week that had adverse consequences for Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president said his country’s military leaders had been warned they would not receive U.S. intelligence if they did not respect Trump’s “ceasefire.”
Despite Ukraine’s restraint, this intelligence withholding was on full display this week when kyiv was caught off guard by Russian drones and missiles without any prior warning from the United States.
“We will find a way out,” Zelensky said of the situation as Ukraine’s Western allies scramble to catch up on the intelligence and defense gap left by the United States.
Zelensky said he would be willing to stop attacks on energy infrastructure, but only if the United States provided Patriot interceptors that would allow kyiv to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles and drones that have been raining down on Ukraine since February 24, 2022.
Zelensky: Starlink limits the question of American “will”
Despite US claims that the Starlink situation was the result of a technical problem, Zelenskyy told the FT: “It was not a technical problem, it was a question of will.”
SpaceX owner Elon Musk said the United States owns and operates the Starshield military version of Starlink used by Ukraine, adding that he and his company had nothing to do with the problem.
The FT interview follows Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian oil as well as his promise to buy “millions of barrels” of Russian diesel fuel amid high fuel prices caused by the US war against Iran.
It is unlikely that this agreement, a few weeks before the mid-term elections in the United States, will lower oil prices. But it provides a lifeline for Russian President Putin, allowing him to continue his illegal invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Zelensky and went so far as to call for his replacement over the weekend.
Trump’s sanctions run counter to nearly five years of allied political efforts to pressure Moscow to end its invasion.
Trump’s actions have angered NATO allies and European leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, calling the U.S. deal to buy Russian diesel a “very risky decision.”
Meloni stressed that the oil price surge was clearly precipitated by Trump’s war in Iran and that his relationship with Putin would lead the Russian leader to continue his invasion of Ukraine rather than end it.
Edited by: Natalie Muller
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