Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that strikes on Russian oil infrastructure would be reinstated, bringing to a close a pause in those operations that had been maintained under pressure from Washington. Zelensky described the suspension of such attacks as over, stating that Ukrainian forces would resume strikes on Russian oil refineries.
In a Thursday interview with a prominent broadcast outlet, Zelensky raised concerns about what he described as a reduction in intelligence cooperation from the United States and disruptions to SpaceX's Starlink satellite service, while also noting that a ban on striking refineries had been lifted.
Those remarks came against a backdrop of strained relations between Kyiv and Washington, where disagreement over how to handle the conflict in Ukraine has centred in part on efforts by President Donald Trump to reach energy deals with Moscow. A proposal put forward by Trump called on Kyiv to halt drone and missile strikes on Russian oil-processing facilities, framed around concerns that continued attacks were placing upward pressure on fuel costs worldwide. Trump attributed the rise in fuel prices partly to Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, a statement that came after a diesel supply deal had been reached between the two countries.
Zelensky stated that drone and missile strikes on Russian fuel infrastructure were halted for a three-day window at the request of the United States. At the same time, his remarks pointed to an unbroken pattern of Russian strikes on Ukrainian positions across that span.
Alongside other matters, Zelensky raised concerns about a pullback in American intelligence support, noting that advance alerts about incoming Russian missile attacks had gone dark for Ukrainian forces on a temporary basis. Outages to the Starlink satellite internet network were said to have hampered battlefield communications and frontline activity throughout Ukraine. Zelensky disputed the technical-fault narrative surrounding the Starlink outage, raising the prospect that the service had been intentionally cut off.
At an earlier point, Trump put forward the position that no suspension of intelligence sharing with Ukraine had taken place on Washington's part. In a separate statement, Elon Musk noted that Starshield — a satellite communications network built on Starlink infrastructure and rated for military use — sits under the ownership and operational authority of the U.S. government. Decisions about capping Starshield network speeds rest with the federal government rather than SpaceX, Musk said.
Zelensky also took issue with Trump's openness to pursuing commercial deals with Moscow, and raised questions about the nature of the president's ties to Vladimir Putin. Renewed strikes by Ukraine against Russian oil facilities stand to place additional strain on peace talks while leaving both energy markets and the broader war's trajectory in a state of flux.
