President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has said he will no longer abide by President Trump’s demand to stop striking Russian oil refineries, as Kyiv’s anger at what it sees as a betrayal by Washington appeared to boil over.
Mr. Zelensky’s remarks — in an interview with The Financial Times published on Thursday — brought to a head days of mounting tensions with the Trump administration.
Ukraine stopped striking Russian refineries to comply with an energy cease-fire that Mr. Trump unilaterally declared on Sunday, and it shrugged off the U.S. leader’s calls for Mr. Zelensky to be replaced.
While Kyiv said it was unfair that Russia continued to attack Ukraine’s power plants and substations, it abided by the halt for three days, partly over concerns that Washington could stop sharing the intelligence Ukraine needs to warn its population of incoming Russian strikes. Then, on Wednesday, Ukraine said that its military, with no warning, had lost some critical access to a military version of Starlink, a pillar of its battlefield communications.
Asked in the Financial Times interview how much longer Ukraine would maintain the pause, Mr. Zelensky said, “That’s it. The block is out.” He did not provide details or say when refinery strikes — previously part of a Ukrainian campaign to bring the war closer to Russians — would resume.
On Thursday, Pavel Malkov, the governor of Ryazan, a Russian region southeast of Moscow, said on social media that a fire had broken out at an oil refinery after a drone strike overnight. Those details could not be independently confirmed.
In Mr. Zelensky’s Financial Times interview, which took place during his visit to London on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Andy Burnham and King Charles III of Britain, he also said that U.S. military officials had threatened to withhold intelligence if Ukraine did not stop attacking Russian energy infrastructure.
“They said, ‘If you will not stop, we will block intelligence,’” Mr. Zelensky said, referring to what he described as communication between American military officials and their Ukrainian counterparts. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He also said that Ukraine had not received advance warning about Russian ballistic missile launches this week. Those warnings typically come from U.S. intelligence.
“Block or technical problem or will, I don’t know,” he said.
U.S. officials have said that the United States has not cut back on intelligence sharing with Ukraine, and denied any threat to withhold such support.
Overnight on Wednesday, Russia launched dozens of ballistic missiles, hitting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and leaving 600,000 people in Kyiv without power. Ukraine said that the use of Starshield — a military version of Starlink that the Pentagon pays for — had been restricted for devices traveling faster than 100 miles per hour.
Mr. Zelensky suggested in his interview that a decision had been made to slow the service, but he did not say by whom.
“It was not a technical problem. It was the will,” Mr. Zelensky said.
The Starshield restrictions were seen in Ukraine as part of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign to limit the fighting ability of Ukrainian forces. Mr. Trump has pushed Kyiv to stop attacking Russia’s oil refineries so that Moscow can send more diesel to global markets, as high prices threaten the Republican Party’s prospects in the midterm elections.
Last week, Mr. Trump said that he had reached an agreement with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to import millions of tons of diesel fuel to the United States over the next few months. The Treasury Department later lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports that had been imposed in 2022 to limit Mr. Putin’s ability to finance Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Business is interesting between the United States and Russia,” Mr. Zelensky said in the interview. “I think that they want to have energy projects. This, politically, is not simple, because everybody will want to ask how it can be when some people are surviving, fighting, dying.”
Mr. Zelensky also expressed frustration with the United States, angrily saying that he did not hear from Mr. Trump after Russian attacks killed civilians in Ukrainian cities this week.
Asked how he has managed to deal with Mr. Trump, he appeared baffled by the president’s decisions. He criticized Mr. Trump for making deals with Mr. Putin, and for openly admiring dictators like Mr. Putin who have held on to power for decades.
“Putin is an enemy for us. He’s the real evil of today,” Mr. Zelensky said. “How can Trump be friends with him? I think it’s a mistake.”
Constant Méheut contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.
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