Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that strikes on Russian oil refineries would resume, stating that restrictions placed on Ukraine's access to intelligence and Starlink satellite communications had put Ukrainian forces at greater risk. He underscored that the earlier halt to refinery strikes had been lifted. "It's over," Zelensky told reporters during a London interview.
According to Zelensky, Ukrainian military officials received notice from their American counterparts that continued strikes on Russian energy infrastructure would lead Washington to limit intelligence sharing with Kyiv. The exchange added to a pattern of strained ties between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump, with Trump having pressed Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian oil facilities — a stance tied to efforts by the administration to bring down fuel costs.
Trump put forward an agreement last week for Russia to provide diesel fuel to American and international markets, with the announcement drawing objections from members of Congress and European allied governments. In a Wednesday interview with a British broadcaster, Zelensky described the deal as advantageous to Moscow and said he regretted the prospect of Ukraine losing what he considered a meaningful ally.
Zelensky put forward the position that the administration had moved toward Moscow's side rather than holding to the impartial role he understood Washington to have taken on, framing the war in terms of land, family, and physical survival, and arguing that any actor claiming to stand in the middle who then tilts toward one party has, in effect, made a choice.
Friction mounted after Ukraine reported that Starlink's military-grade connectivity — the satellite link that infantry units and drone operators rely on to run battlefield coordination — had been scaled back. An unnamed official asserted that whoever bore responsibility for the move stood on the wrong side of history.
Zelensky put Elon Musk and SpaceX on notice that cutting off Starlink across Ukraine — at a moment when Russian strikes on cities and power infrastructure were continuing — amounted to an error that he believed would cost lives. He also left open the possibility that the disruption had a technical origin rather than a deliberate one, describing that outcome as the more tolerable of the two.
On Wednesday, Musk indicated that Starshield — the satellite network built for military use — sits under full US government ownership and authority, with that body holding the power to set operational limits. Musk drew a distinction between Starlink's role as a commercially operated platform built around civilian and defensive applications, and any use of the technology to carry out offensive military action, which he described as outside its intended purpose.
Analysts noted that any reduction in intelligence-sharing arrangements could leave Ukrainian air-defence networks with shorter warning windows ahead of incoming missile attacks, a concern that had run alongside reporting on Starlink access. Kyiv's officials conveyed to a broadcast outlet that reduced access to intelligence data could tilt battlefield conditions in Russia's favour, while a European counterpart cast doubt on the American account attributing gaps in missile-alert coverage to weather conditions.
On back-to-back nights, alerts meant to give residents of Kyiv time to reach shelter arrived only after ballistic missiles had already begun closing in on — or hitting — the city. Ballistic missiles were directed at the area across back-to-back evenings, with strikes landing on a power plant and other civilian infrastructure. Zelensky stated that allied partners in the West provided no notification to Ukraine before the missile strikes were carried out.
On at least one prior occasion, the administration indicated it held the option of cutting off intelligence flows and blocking European procurement of American arms for Ukraine unless Kyiv brought an end to long-range strikes against Russian energy facilities. According to Zelensky, aerial bombardment had cut power to upwards of 600,000 people across the country. Aerial bombardment from Russian forces has grown more frequent even as ground advances have stalled, with power grids and energy networks drawing strikes from both parties to the conflict.
Zelensky's Wednesday stop in London included face-to-face meetings with both King Charles III and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
