Ukraine has run out of patience with the lurches of the United States and with Donald Trump's closeness to autocrat Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the Ukrainian army will resume, despite pressure from Washington, attacks against Russian refineries, definitively burying an alleged truce - "energy", Trump promised - between kyiv and Moscow. This supposed ceasefire was announced unilaterally on Sunday by the president of the United States and the Kremlin ignored it from the first minute.
"The blockade [on attacks on refineries] is over. Enough is enough," Zelensky said in an interview with the British newspaper Financial Times, conducted shortly before traveling to Brussels to seek support from European leaders. They have also been upset by a new agreement between Trump and Putin about which they have not been consulted either and by which Moscow will release thousands of barrels of diesel on world markets and Washington will lift sanctions on that hydrocarbon.
This Thursday – after two days in which the internet service provided by Starlink, a company owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, has operated with restrictions as another measure of pressure on Ukraine – a drone attack from kyiv in the Russian region of Ryazan has caused a fire in an oil refinery, according to Pavel Malkov, regional governor. "Material damage is being assessed. Emergency services are working at the scene," he said in a post on Telegram. Another warehouse was damaged.
Ukraine suspended attacks on Russian oil refineries and other energy infrastructure for two days following Trump's announcement of that "energy ceasefire." Since then, Zelensky has explained that they have stopped receiving the alerts that the United States provided to warn them of the arrival of ballistic missiles. Additionally, the Starlink satellite communications service, on which Ukrainian forces rely heavily, has been operating very slowly across the country; a serious problem that hinders frontline operations and medium-range attacks against Russian military facilities.
Zelensky has stressed that the problems with this communication system are not accidental. “It was not a technical problem; it was a matter of will,” said the Ukrainian president, who stressed that he could only agree to stop attacks against Russian energy infrastructure if, in exchange, he received more American-made Patriot interceptor missiles.
Starshield systems, a subsidiary of Starlink for military uses, "are owned and controlled by the United States Government. Any limit on speed or use is decided by the United States military and ultimately by the president," Musk recalled in a message on X on Wednesday.
The relationship between Trump and Zelensky, which has always been very tense, is once again at a low point. On Saturday, the Republican tycoon called on Ukrainians to find a new president and lashed out at kyiv's attacks on Russian oil infrastructure. Trump and his party face midterm elections in early November, and his approval ratings are at rock bottom.
The American public disapproves of him bringing the country into the war against Iran, which has skyrocketed fuel prices; such as diesel, which has risen almost 70% since the start of the bombings on Tehran. Hence the hasty agreement with Putin on diesel, the announcement of an energy truce and the new attacks on Zelensky, whom Trump blames for the rise in hydrocarbons that are taking a toll on him in the polls. Only MAGA voters believe that lie.
The United States seeks to increase pressure on Ukraine, extremely dependent on the intelligence information it provides and the weapons it supplies, but which are, in reality, paid for by European allies. Washington has threatened to cut off the tap of both things if Zelensky does not return to the fold of what Trump ordered.
“All of us in Europe want this war to end,” said Zelensky upon his arrival in Brussels, where this Thursday he will meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. "This requires signs of strength: more real pressure on Russia and more defensive support for Ukraine. Now it is especially important to act together to protect lives," the Ukrainian president added in a statement on social networks.
For Europe, the restriction of Starlink in Ukraine is another worrying signal from Washington not only because of what it may affect the conflict itself on Ukrainian territory, but because of its implications on the entire European continent.
“We are not able to protect Europe if they turn off” the system, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned. “If [the US] wants to protect NATO, if it wants to protect Europe, it has to remain open,” stressed Frederikssen, for whom this new incident demonstrates how “deeply problematic” it is that Europe depends so much on a key private communication system for its defense. “It is yet another example of how the technology giants have achieved too much power and too much influence,” he warned.
As for the agreement on diesel, it is “a bad sign” that “is going in the wrong direction,” warned the acting Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, upon his arrival at the summit in Brussels. “Every step taken to help the Russians increase funding for the war is a bad sign,” he insisted, giving voice to the majority sentiment—although not unanimous: his Bulgarian counterpart, Rumen Radev, has distanced himself from criticism of the agreement—at the meeting of European leaders, where the war against Ukraine will focus the discussions this Friday.
Frederiksen has also expressed his concern about an agreement that puts “the Western alliance” in a “worse situation than a few days ago.”
“Pressuring Ukraine is not the appropriate strategy, and that is why Europe supports Ukraine,” the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, has summarized the majority's discomfort with Trump's latest insult against Ukraine. “In Europe we know perfectly well that, when we buy anything from the Russians, we are financing the murder of Europeans,” Frederiksen added.
