Ukraine has resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy angrily accused the United States of betraying Kyiv with a “dangerous” withdrawal of support critical to its defense against Russia.
Ukraine held off on attacks for three days after President Donald Trump’s unilateral “energy ceasefire” announcement, but it accused Russia of repeatedly attacking its power grid. Zelenskyy voiced mounting frustration over the Kremlin’s failure to abide by the truce and what he sees as U.S. attempts to pressure Kyiv following gaps in intelligence-sharing about Russian attacks and restrictions on the Starlink internet service.
Satellite internet functionality via Starshield — the military version of the SpaceX service in Ukraine — has resumed at previous speeds for the moment, Ukrainian Chargé d’Affaires Denys Sienik told NBC News on Thursday.
“We hope it will remain unchanged,” Sienik said. “Speed is critical for logistics and for intercepting the jet-powered Shahed drones.”
The Ukrainian government still has received no response from SpaceX or the U.S. Defense Department about the reason for the recent limitations, a Ukrainian official said.
In an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday, Zelenskyy indicated his patience had already been exhausted.
“The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done,” Zelenskyy was quoted as saying.
Hours later, a fire was reported at an oil refinery in the western Ryazan region, Gov. Pavel Malkov said. The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine had “attempted a massive attack on the Ryazan oil refinery.”
Ukraine has been reeling from a sudden shift from Trump, who struck a diesel deal with Russia in an apparent bid to relieve pressure at the pump ahead of the midterm elections. He then demanded that Ukraine stop attacking Russian oil facilities and called for Zelenskyy to be replaced as its leader.
Trump’s “energy ceasefire” appeared to take both warring sides by surprise. He has blamed the Ukrainian campaign for fueling a rise in energy prices, despite the impact of his own war with Iran.
The moves caused frustration and confusion in Ukraine and Europe, intensifying concerns over how much of an ally the U.S. remained in the fight against Russia.
That worry was aggravated Wednesday when Kyiv said it was facing a slowdown of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite terminals, disrupting battlefield missions and its ability to intercept Russian drones.
Russian drones swarmed Ukraine on Wednesday, and more than 850 had filled the skies over Ukraine since early Thursday, Zelenskyy said. “And this comes precisely at a time when the speed of our defensive capabilities is being artificially restricted,” he said, referring to the Starlink slowdown.
Musk, a staunch ally of Trump, wrote on social media that decisions about restricting the use of Starshield were up to the U.S. military and ultimately Trump.
Overnight, Musk said it was “time for Zelenskyy to go.”
The Defense Ministry source said Kyiv was still seeking clarification of the reasons for Wednesday’s throttling of the technology, which Ukraine relies on for battlefield communication, drone operations and air defense.
Questions are mounting about whether the U.S. has stopped or limited the sharing of critical military intelligence with Ukraine after Zelenskyy said several ballistic strikes on Kyiv did not come with the usual warning from its partners.
European and Ukrainian officials told NBC News they believed that the moves, coming only days after Trump eased sanctions on Russia’s diesel exports and railed against Zelenskyy, were most likely aimed at pressuring Kyiv into making concessions at the negotiating table amid a stalemate in peace talks.
Ukraine was concerned that the chain of events amounted to an effort to pile pressure on Kyiv and backtrack on years of U.S. promises to help fend off the Russian invasion, one of the Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine relies heavily on U.S. intelligence and the Starshield satellite network to defend itself against Russian drone and missile attacks, as well as to target Russian forces with its own drones. A reduction in intelligence assistance or satellite access could seriously undermine Ukraine’s battlefield prospects just as winter sets in, according to military experts.
Ukrainian military officials were told by their U.S. counterparts that “if you will not stop [the energy strikes], we will block intelligence,” Zelenskyy said, according to the Financial Times, although the incident was subsequently presented to Kyiv as a technical glitch.
The withdrawal of the intelligence and the simultaneous weakening of Starlink satellite internet were “dangerous” for Ukraine, he told the newspaper, adding that fighting without the U.S. would be “very difficult.”
In a separate interview with Piers Morgan on Wednesday, Zelenskyy acknowledged that he felt “betrayed” by Trump’s actions.
