Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that strikes on oil refineries inside Russia would resume, while also stating that the United States had withdrawn its support for Ukraine. Zelensky disclosed that he had held back such operations for three days at Washington's request, even as Russian forces continued targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, adding in remarks to a television outlet that the arrangement was over.
Zelensky put forward claims that intelligence about Russian strike plans had been withheld from Ukrainian forces, and that Starlink satellite access underpinning those operations had been deliberately restricted — actions he attributed to external pressure aimed at compelling Kyiv to abandon the attacks altogether, following a separate arrangement to bring Russian diesel into the country.
In an earlier statement, Zelensky indicated a readiness to honour the energy ceasefire arrangement put forward by US President Donald Trump on Sunday, provided that Moscow held to its terms as well. Zelensky contended that Russia had walked away from the proposed deal within hours of it being announced, even as power was cut to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian households by a wave of strikes. No statement of agreement with the arrangement was ever issued by the Kremlin.
In a televised appearance on Wednesday night, Zelensky told the programme's host that he no longer felt supported by the United States, remarks that followed a series of steps by Washington to scale back elements of its assistance. According to Zelensky, Ukrainian officials had been notified by their American counterparts that intelligence-sharing arrangements would be suspended if the strikes continued.
Advance alerts from the United States about incoming aerial threats feed directly into air-defence operations, helping to intercept attacks before they land, while Starlink connectivity runs across the breadth of the war effort. Speculation that a technical fault lay behind the disruption to Starlink services drew a public rebuttal from owner Elon Musk, who pointed toward the Trump administration as the responsible party, while Zelensky, speaking to a broadcaster during his time in London, stated that the interruption had been a matter of deliberate decision rather than any failure of infrastructure.
Strikes on Russian oil infrastructure would continue, Zelensky indicated, unless the United States provided additional Patriot air defence missiles — a position that attaches conditions to targets Kyiv describes as central to limiting the funding available for Russia's military campaign.
In a televised interview, Zelensky stated that his counterpart in Washington harboured a preference for leaders who govern without democratic constraints, citing Russia's Vladimir Putin as an example. Responsibility for repairing the bilateral relationship, he argued, did not rest with him in light of the preceding week's developments, adding that the breakdown had not originated on his side.
