President Volodymyr Zelensky’s anger at the Trump administration burst into view on Thursday when he said he would no longer abide by President Trump’s demand to stop striking Russian oil refineries.
It was a remarkably vocal expression by the Ukrainian leader of frustration with the United States, as Kyiv grapples with what it sees as a betrayal by Washington.
Mr. Zelensky’s remarks, in an interview with The Financial Times published on Thursday, brought to a head days of mounting tensions with the Trump administration. It drew expressions of support from European allies in Brussels, but could be a risky move for a country that has depended heavily on U.S. support.
In the interview, Mr. Zelensky appeared baffled by Mr. Trump’s decisions, criticizing Mr. Trump for making deals with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and for openly admiring dictators who have clung to power. Mr. Putin, the Ukrainian leader said, is “real evil.”
“How can Trump be friends with him?” Mr. Zelensky added. “I think it’s a mistake.”
The Trump administration has long blown hot and cold when it comes to Ukraine. But a new round of friction emerged last week, when Mr. Trump said he had reached an agreement to immediately import Russian diesel fuel to the U.S. market. Ukraine said the move would help fund Moscow’s war effort.
Mr. Trump upped the ante on Sunday, unilaterally declaring an energy cease-fire between the two warring sides and calling for Mr. Zelensky to be replaced. While Ukraine shrugged that idea off, it stopped striking Russian refineries, even as Russia continued to bombard Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
But Mr. Zelensky’s public expressions of frustration became more pointed amid concerns that Washington might cut off intelligence sharing that helps Ukraine detect Russian attacks. Then Ukraine said on Wednesday that its forces had lost some critical access to a military-grade version of the Starlink satellite network, a pillar of its battlefield communications that the Pentagon pays for.
Mr. Zelensky now appears to have had enough.
“That’s it. The block is out,” Mr. Zelensky said when asked by The Financial Times how much longer Ukraine would maintain the pause on targeting refineries. He did not say what had tipped his decision or when the strikes would resume.
On Thursday, Pavel Malkov, the governor of Ryazan, a Russian region southeast of Moscow, said on social media that a fire had broken out at an oil refinery after a drone strike overnight. A Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a classified military operation, confirmed that Kyiv was behind the attack.
Questions about U.S. support for Ukraine in the war against Russia grew after a meeting this month between Ukrainian officials and top U.S. negotiators, in which some who were present said they thought the Americans made a veiled threat about curbing intelligence sharing.
U.S. officials said this week that Washington had not cut back on intelligence sharing with Ukraine, and denied making any threat to withhold such support.
But Mr. Zelensky said in his interview that U.S. military officials had threatened to withhold intelligence if Ukraine did not stop attacking Russian energy infrastructure. He also reiterated that while Ukraine’s Western partners have often used satellite data and other sources to warn of impending Russian attacks, there was no advance warning about some of the Russian ballistic missile launches this week, including overnight on Wednesday.
That’s when Russia launched dozens of ballistic missiles, hitting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and leaving 600,000 people in Kyiv without power. Reports that the use of the military version of Starlink had been restricted for devices traveling faster than 100 miles per hour — the speeds needed to intercept some Russian drones — came later that day.
The restrictions were seen in Ukraine as a way to limit the fighting ability of Kyiv’s forces — part of the Trump administration’s broader pressure campaign. Mr. Trump has pushed Kyiv to stop attacking Russia’s oil refineries so that Moscow can send more diesel to global markets, as high prices threaten the Republican Party’s prospects in the midterm elections.
Mr. Zelensky has acknowledged that he felt betrayed by those moves. He told Piers Morgan, the British TV host, in an interview on Wednesday that it was “a pity that we are losing a strong partner” and that “this is not the right side of history.”
In his remarks to The Financial Times — in which he also questioned how Washington could seek business deals at a time when people are “surviving, fighting, dying” — Mr. Zelensky went further.
It was a notable shift from the largely conciliatory and less confrontational position his government has adopted since a disastrous February 2025 Oval Office confrontation. After that meeting, the Trump administration briefly suspend intelligence sharing.
Analysts said that was because recent events — including Mr. Trump’s announcement about diesel exports, which came as Ukraine’s delegation was in Miami for talks — amounted to a substantive setback and political humiliation that Mr. Zelensky could not let slide.
The cautious approach, according to Mariia Zolkina, a Ukrainian political analyst who works at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, was clearly no longer working. So Mr. Zelensky changed the calculus.
She said that Mr. Zelensky is undoubtedly “taking a big risk” defying Mr. Trump, who could hit back. But Mr. Zelensky’s “harsh words” were likely less about insulting the U.S. president than making clear that Ukraine will keep striking oil refineries so long as the balance is tilted in favor of Russia, she said. Still, Ms. Zolkina acknowledged that the approach could backfire if Mr. Trump decides to penalize Ukraine for defying him.
The comments in The Financial Times were published hours before Mr. Zelensky arrived in Brussels, where European leaders mostly expressed support for his decision to resume attacks on Russian refineries.
“The faster all the Russian refineries and ability to sell energy will be blown to smithereens the better, because Russia is funding the war with that,” Prime Minister Kristen Michal of Estonia told reporters.
That backing, however, wasn’t unanimous. “I don’t support strikes on any refineries,” Prime Minister Rumen Radev of Bulgaria told reporters.
With the exception of Mr. Radev, the European leaders also criticized the Trump administration’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel.
“This ridiculous diesel deal won’t do anything at all for prices on the world market,” said Rob Jetten, the prime minister of the Netherlands. “It does, however, fill Putin’s war chest, so it’s really a very bad choice on Trump’s part, and he’d be better off abandoning it.”
There was no immediate response from the White House to the remarks by Mr. Zelensky. In the meantime, officials from Ukraine’s defense ministry said they were working to verify whether Starshield’s connectivity for devices in motion had been restored. Ukraine’s embassy in Washington, though, said services had resumed.
Constant Méheut contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine, Koba Ryckewaert from Brussels and Anton Troianovski from Washington.