A defiant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Ukraine would snub President Trump and resume strikes on Russian oil refineries — after he accused the White House of restricting Kyiv’s access to the vital Starshield military satellite network.
“The block is out. We’re done,” Zelensky told the Financial Times during a London visit.
The decision came after Ukraine complied with the cease-fire for three days while Moscow continued to launch more than 100 attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the past week, Zelensky fumed.
Moments after Zelensky’s announcement, Pavel Malkov, the governor of Russia’s Ryazan province, confirmed that Ukrainian drone strikes hit a state oil company, sparking a fire.
Zelensky has long defended attacks on Russian oil facilities as a means to hamper Moscow’s war funds while also retaliating for strikes on Ukrainian power plants.
Trump, however, called for a moratorium on strikes against energy facilities after announcing a deal on Friday to purchase more than 2.25 million barrels of diesel from Russia to alleviate a global shortage.
Zelensky swiftly lashed out at the fuel deal, telling Axios it “looks like a happy birthday present” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Ukrainian leader then went further and accused the US of trying to strong-arm Ukraine into accepting the cease-fire while Russian fire still continued.
US military officials allegedly told Ukraine, “if you will not stop [the energy strikes], we will block intelligence,” Zelensky claimed.
White House sources, however, told The Post that Putin understood that the cease-fire only covered oil refineries — and not the power plants Moscow has been bombing.
The sources suggested that Zelensky was purposefully expanding the interpretation of the limited cease-fire to claim Russia broke it first, ultimately undermining the deal and Trump.
Trump has denied that Washington ever cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine, but tensions flared further when Kyiv’s access to the Starshield military satellite system was abruptly interrupted on Tuesday.
The American satellite network, a secure military offshoot of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite system, allows Ukraine to track and intercept high-speed attacks and to guide long-range attacks into Russia.
An outage prevented Ukraine from effectively deploying interceptor drones to fend off incoming attacks from Moscow.
It remains unclear what caused Starshield to fail, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday pointed the finger at the Pentagon and the White House.
A senior US official denied to The Post on Thursday that the president had restricted access. The Pentagon has not responded to the claim.
By Thursday morning, Ukrainian officials said Starshield access had been restored.
“Starshield speeds have been improved, at the moment,” Denys Sienik, a top diplomat at the Ukraine Embassy in Washington, told The Post. “We hope all will be resumed to the previous level.
“Speed is critical for logistics, and for intercepting the jet-powered Shahed drones, especially when Russia constantly uses them to attack our cities and commit war crimes,” he added.
“Yesterday saw one of the most massive Shahed [drone] attacks, occurring precisely when our defense system’s speed was being throttled, and the circumstances behind this are deeply concerning.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky also lashed out at Trump over his relationship with Putin and what he described as the president’s affinity for autocrats.
“He [Trump] speaks about it openly and loudly that he loves such people and he respects such people,” Zelensky told the FT. “Because for him people who can be leaders 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, it means they can be very strong.”
The Ukrainian president ultimately called on Trump to reject business ties with Russia and commit itself to helping Ukraine fight off Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Zelensky admitted that without the US, fighting back the Russian invasion would be “very difficult.”
Despite Zelensky’s attack, the Trump administration believes the president’s current course of action, including the Russian diesel deal, is still the best way to secure peace in Ukraine.
Officials claimed the deal would effectively serve as a carrot to get Putin back to the negotiating table and lay the groundwork for a lasting peace deal.
The administration also believes the deal would help tackle surging gas prices in the US despite experts warning that the war in Iran is mostly to blame for the high prices.
The agreement would also help foster future economic relations between the US and Russia once the war concludes, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Whether the strategy pans out remains to be seen. Experts seem doubtful that the war will end that easily.
“For Trump, it’s a two-fer: try to lower diesel prices to save his own skin before the midterms, and use more Ukrainian deaths to strong-arm Zelensky to accept a surrender agreement with Russia so Trump can claim to have ended the war,” a former National Security Council official told The Post. “Neither will work.”
Fred Fleitz, chief of staff of the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, echoed the need to be tough on Russia to secure lasting peace.
“Ultimately, I believe the tipping point for a peace deal will come when Putin finally accepts that the war is unwinnable and his only chance for an honorable exit is through a deal with Trump,” Fleitz said. “This should be the central theme of any Witkoff-Kushner negotiations with Putin.”
UK Defense Minister Wes Streeting said London is working to mend the relationship between Kyiv and Washington and bring “friends back together again.”
“We need President Trump engaged on Ukraine,” Streeting said on Fox News.
“He has been, and the diplomatic track is as important in making sure Ukraine has the weapons it needs to see off Russian aggression.”
