Zelensky Defies U.S. Moratorium to Resume Strikes on Russian Oil Infrastructure

Jonathan Ernst / REUTERS Ukraine’s leader has launched an extraordinary attack on Donald Trump as he announced that he would no longer abide by the U.S. president’s “energy ceasefire.” In a furious interview published Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would not bow to Washington’s demands for him to end drone strikes on Russian oil refineries.

“We’re done,” Zelensky told the Financial Times after a three-day stay of attacks on the Russian energy sector.

He made good on that promise hours later with major hits on an energy installation in Russia’s western Ryazan region.

Zelensky, 48, personally criticized his 80-year-old U.S. counterpart for sucking up to authoritarian leaders.

“He speaks about it openly and loudly that he loves such people and he respects such people,” he told the newspaper.

“Because for him people who can be leaders 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, it means they can be very strong.” The Ukrainian president’s remarks are a stinging rebuke to pressure from the White House to halt attacks against Moscow’s oil infrastructure after Trump signed a deal to purchase more than 1.8 million tons of diesel from Russia last week.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Moscow’s energy industry to cut off revenue for Putin’s war machine.

Trump, who called for Zelensky to resign over the weekend, struck that agreement as the White House scrambles to bring down sky-high fuel prices driven by his own war on Iran.

Voters have ranked that conflict and its impact on affordability among their chief concerns ahead of the Nov.

3 race for control of the House and Senate, with Democrats holding an overall 9-point lead over Republicans.

Zelensky initially complied with an “energy ceasefire” that was unilaterally proclaimed by Trump in a social media post on Sunday without any apparent consultation with Kyiv or Moscow.

He has now reversed course after Russia continued pummeling power plants and other facilities with attacks that have killed more than 100 civilians and left 600,000 without power over the past week alone.

The Trump administration pushed Kyiv to accept Trump’s ceasefire by threatening to withhold intelligence sharing if it did not, Zelensky said.

He added that Ukrainian military forces had then gone without alert systems for incoming missile strikes and suffered slowed coverage from Elon Musk’s Starlink service, essential to frontline operations.