Ukraine to Resume Russian Oil Refinery Strikes After Failed Energy Ceasefire
Ukraine will resume drone strikes on Russian refineries after Russia kept hitting energy infrastructure and killing civilians in Ukraine despite U.S. President Trump’s claim of an “energy ceasefire”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Financial Times.
In the interview in London, the Ukrainian President told FT he had ordered a pause in strikes on Russian refineries for three days to comply with the U.S. wishes. Meanwhile, Russia continued to strike Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and kill civilians, Zelenskyy said.
“The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done,” the Ukrainian President told FT, while also criticizing the U.S. eagerness to agree business deals with Russia, including in the energy sector.
Zelenskyy has for days insisted that Russia isn’t sticking to any “energy truce” and continues to target with ballistic missiles energy infrastructure—“the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American President.”
A strike early on Wednesday on Ukraine’s energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, the Kyiv region, and Kharkiv “was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale – Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States,” Zelenskyy posted on X yesterday.
In the interview with FT, the Ukrainian President also expressed his frustration with the “dangerous” withdrawal of U.S. intelligence and the simultaneous weakening of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications across Ukraine.
President Trump has pressured Zelenskyy to stop hitting Russian oil refineries, because part of the global diesel crunch is the lack of Russian exports. The other major driver of record-high diesel prices and the highest-ever October gasoline prices in the U.S. is, of course, the war in Iran President Trump chose to engage in early this year.
Early on Thursday, crude oil prices fell by about 1% in Asian trading as reports emerged that President Trump was considering lifting sanctions on tankers used to transport oil and fuels from Venezuela, Russia, and Iran in a bid to ease a deepening tanker crunch.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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