Ukraine Resumes Drone Strikes on Russian Oil Refineries After Brief Truce Collapses
Ukraine hit a Russian oil refinery early Thursday, ending a short-lived truce on energy targets, as Zelenskyy said in an interview that he felt betrayed by President Trump over the U.S. approach to the war.
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery early Thursday, abandoning a brief truce on energy targets that Kyiv said Moscow never honored, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he felt betrayed by President Donald Trump in an interview published Thursday.
The drone strike started a fire at the refinery about 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Moscow in Russia’s Ryazan region, according to the Russian Defense Ministry and Ryazan Gov. Pavel Malkov. A senior Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Ukraine had hit the refinery.
Zelenskyy told the Financial Times that Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries would resume. “We’re done,” he was quoted as saying.
The strike followed what Zelenskyy described as outrage over Russia’s continued aerial bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, despite Trump’s demand on Sunday that both sides halt such attacks.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine had also been denied its usual Western intelligence on Russian ballistic missile strikes in recent days and that limits had been placed on its use of U.S.-made Starlink communication terminals, both of which Ukraine’s military relies on. Trump has said the U.S. has not stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
“I felt betrayed”
In an interview late Wednesday with Piers Morgan on the British journalist’s YouTube show, Zelenskyy said he felt betrayed by Trump over the energy ceasefire announcement, a U.S. deal to import Russian diesel, and the Starlink restrictions.
“Really, yes, between us,” Zelenskyy told Morgan when asked if he felt betrayed by the American president. He called the behavior of the U.S., including restricting the Starlink system, “really strange.”
Zelenskyy also said Ukraine was “losing a strong partner” in the United States and that it was “painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side.”
Kyiv turns to Europe
Amid the strain with Washington, Zelenskyy traveled to Brussels on Thursday for talks with European Union leaders at a two-day summit, a day after winning pledges of more help from British Prime Minister Andy Burnham in London.
Zelenskyy said he would meet with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron, and the prime ministers of Poland, Denmark and Belgium.
Asked whether the EU still trusted Trump, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the EU saw things differently. “Squeezing Ukraine is not the right approach, and that is why Europe is standing beside Ukraine,” she told reporters.
The fighting continued on both sides overnight. Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 850 drones at Ukraine between midnight and Thursday morning, hitting 15 regions; three people were killed and six injured in the Kirovohrad region, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Services. Ukraine’s air force said its defenses stopped 536 of the drones. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 166 Ukrainian drones overnight and that Russian forces hit two vessels carrying military cargo.
Zelenskyy also said a Ukrainian missile destroyed six Russian warplanes at an airfield in southwestern Russia, aircraft he said were used to launch glide bombs. Russia did not comment on that claim.
Reporting based on coverage by the Associated Press and NPR.
