Kallas Defends Ukraine’s Strikes on Russian Refineries

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas defended Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries as self-defence, arguing that oil revenue helps finance Russia’s war. The exchange came after Ukraine’s president said Kyiv would resume the strikes, while Washington had pressed Ukraine to stop them even as Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure continued.

“If we look at international law, it is clear that [hitting refineries] is in defence of Ukraine because that is where the funding comes from for this war to kill Ukrainian people every day,” Kallas told Euronews. She said the quickest way to stop the attacks was to end Russia’s war of aggression.

Oil, war and the energy ceasefire

Kallas said oil provides most of the financing for the war. She contrasted Ukraine’s attacks on refineries with Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which she said aimed “to cause as much suffering for the Ukrainian people in the upcoming winter.” Her argument put competing attacks on energy facilities at the centre of a dispute over what counts as defence and who gets to set the limits.

The comments followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a deal for Russia to supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel amid a global energy crunch. Trump also announced an “energy ceasefire” under which Russia and Ukraine would stop targeting each other’s energy infrastructure.

Kallas said the war has a clear aggressor and victim. She argued that the United States should join Europeans in pressuring Russia rather than Ukraine, and said the EU would keep supporting Kyiv, which hasn’t surrendered.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would resume strikes on Russian oil refineries. “The block (on attacking refineries) is out. We’re done,” he told the Financial Times in an interview published hours before the EU summit.

Pressure from Washington, attacks from Moscow

Zelenskyy said US officials warned Ukrainian counterparts that intelligence-sharing would be suspended unless Kyiv stopped striking the refineries. He said officials presented the subsequent interruption as a technical problem, but rejected that explanation for disruptions to Starlink satellite internet services. “It was not a technical problem, it was the will,” he said.

He also said Kyiv had halted strikes on Russian energy facilities for three days at Washington’s request, while Moscow kept attacking Ukrainian infrastructure and killing civilians. A powerful ally had requested a pause; Russian attacks on Ukraine continued.

Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said Ukraine struck 12 major Russian refineries in September. The International Energy Agency said that by late August only five of Russia’s 32 major refineries had escaped Ukrainian drone attacks. Some facilities had taken as many as 15 strikes since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

The figures show the scale of the refinery campaign. But the dispute over a ceasefire remains unresolved. The Kremlin responded with sarcasm, questioning whether anyone had actually defined an agreement. “What was announced? What are the boundaries of the energy ceasefire? What does it mean? Was any of this specified?” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov asked on Wednesday. “That is why work in this direction is continuing,” he added.