Ukraine Resumes Refinery Strikes Amid US Pressure

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would resume strikes on Russian oil refineries, rejecting Washington’s request for a pause as Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure continued. The decision has sharpened a dispute over who sets limits on Kyiv’s campaign: Zelenskyy said US officials warned they’d stop sharing intelligence unless Ukraine halted its refinery strikes, while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas defended the attacks as self-defence.

Kyiv’s decision and Washington’s pressure

"The block (on attacking refineries) is out. We're done," Zelenskyy told the Financial Times in an interview published hours before the EU summit. Kyiv had paused attacks on Russian energy facilities for three days at Washington’s request, he said, but Moscow kept attacking Ukrainian infrastructure and killing civilians.

Zelenskyy said US officials warned their Ukrainian counterparts that they’d suspend intelligence-sharing unless Kyiv stopped striking refineries. The later disruption to Starlink satellite internet services was presented as a technical problem, he said, but he rejected that explanation. "It was not a technical problem, it was the will," he said.

Russian attacks on Ukraine had intensified as the dispute unfolded. The account puts Kyiv’s operational choices alongside the support it receives from the United States and Europe. Zelenskyy said Washington had suspended intelligence-sharing and disrupted Starlink services as Ukraine’s strikes resumed.

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

Energy ceasefire remains disputed

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

Kallas said oil provides most of the financing for Russia’s war. Ukraine targets refineries while Russia targets Ukrainian energy infrastructure "to cause as much suffering for the Ukrainian people in the upcoming winter," she said. Her remarks cast the strikes as part of the fight over the resources and infrastructure sustaining the conflict.

The Kremlin questioned whether anyone had defined or put an energy ceasefire in place. "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.

Kallas backs Kyiv’s strikes

Kallas told Euronews that striking refineries was a legitimate way to end Russia’s war. "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," she said. She argued the quickest way to stop the strikes was to end the war.

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

The announced energy ceasefire still has no agreed boundaries in the account provided. Zelenskyy says Ukraine will strike again; Kallas says those strikes constitute defence, while Peskov says work on the ceasefire is still continuing.