Watch video inside article. President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed overt frustration with the United States in an interview with The Financial Times. He had paused the strikes to comply with a demand from the United States.

Share full article is free to open and read or watch video. Ed Biever

Video

Zelensky Says Trump Is on ‘Wrong Side’ of History

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, expressed frustration with President Trump for making deals with the Kremlin, while Russia continues its campaign of striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure before winter.CreditCredit...Pool photo by Henry Nicholls

Cassandra VinogradFrancesca Regalado

By Cassandra Vinograd and Francesca Regalado

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.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

“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.

Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.

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.

ImageSeveral people wearing work jackets are standing amid debris and a damaged building. One person is crouched low, operating a tool.

Workers clearing an apartment that was damaged in an attack, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

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.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

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.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

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.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

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.

We need justice. Trump is an evil man, and that's an understatement.

This Trumps doing to help Russia. KYIV — Ukraine’s Starlink access has been restricted without warning, adding to growing confusion about whether the United States has begun limiting intelligence and military aid to Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian military adviser and others with ties to the country’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI.

A flurry of contradictory reports over possible restrictions on access to Starlink, the satellite internet service, and to U.S. intelligence followed claims by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late Tuesday that Ukraine had not received warnings from its Western partners on incoming ballistic attacks for two consecutive nights.

Starlink is operated by SpaceX, a company owned by Elon Musk, who threatened in 2023 to cut off the Ukrainian military’s access unless the U.S. government paid for it. The Pentagon agreed to pay.

Ukraine’s armed forces rely on a secure, militarized version of Starlink internet service called Starshield for key military operations, including their midrange strike campaign in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Starlink is also vital for the operation of internet-connected interceptor drones that can normally reach speeds over 180 mph.

Ukrainian officials said their military has experienced speed restrictions. “I confirm that SpaceX implemented speed restrictions on Starlink terminals while in motion last night,” Serhii Beskrestnov, a presidential adviser on military technology, said in a post on social media.

“Currently, the restriction applies to the StarShield ‘military service package’ and limits speed to 100 miles per hour,” Beskrestnov posted. “It is obvious that this move cannot be a coincidence and is linked to the current political situation.”

Previously, these systems operated without speed limits — allowing Ukraine to swiftly and effectively hit complex targets. Limits could create major problems for logistics as well as the operation of drones and other fast-moving unmanned systems. The connection might be cut off when these systems exceed the limit during operation.

Serhii Sternenko, who runs a foundation supplying drones to Ukrainian forces and previously served as an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, also reported the Starlink speed limits and later said that the speeds were being limited even further.

“It is likely that the company ‘SpaceX’ resorted to such measures at the request of the Trump administration,” Sternenko said on the messaging app Telegram. “Ordinary satellite communication terminals are currently operational.”

An employee of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry told The Washington Post that the claims regarding Starlink speed limits were still being assessed.

“The Defense Ministry themselves doesn’t yet know whether these restrictions are the result of a policy change or a technical limitation,” said the employee, who like others in this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

“They’re still trying to figure it out,” the employee said, adding: “This was not necessarily some malicious attempt to ground everyone.”

Wednesday’s outages disrupted military operations, creating immediate dangers to troops and civilians, according to Ukrainian service members.

Starshield connectivity was severed among personnel focused on air defense, leaving them unable to intercept drones and missiles, according to a Ukrainian soldier whose unit is fanned out across eastern Ukraine. The loss of connectivity also grounded attack drones that target Russian logistics and command posts, the soldier said.

Musk has not publicly commented on whether the claims on restrictions are accurate. In a post on X over the weekend, he appeared to support President Donald Trump’s call for Zelensky’s removal last week.

“Zelensky has gone too far,” Musk wrote. In another post Wednesday, Musk clarified that Starlink is controlled by SpaceX, while Starshield is controlled by the U.S. government.

“Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” he wrote.

He added: “Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”

The alarm in Ukraine over possible speed limits followed claims from Zelensky’s office that ballistic missiles hit Kyiv without warning Monday and Tuesday night, endangering the lives of civilians who rely on air raid sirens to get to safety in nearby bomb shelters.

“A Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv. Once again, no early warning from our partners. The main target was energy infrastructure,” Zelensky said in a statement late Tuesday.

During the large-scale attack overnight Tuesday, Russian ballistic and cruise missiles hit six different energy facilities across Ukraine, including Kyiv’s main power plants.

Zelensky said Wednesday morning that 39 ballistic missiles and 120 attack drones had been deployed, and that 600,000 people were without electricity. There were rolling power cuts across the capital Wednesday, and electric public transportation in some parts of the city had been suspended. The overnight attacks on Kyiv left at least four dead and 25 injured, according to city authorities.

Zelensky’s office and Ukraine’s air force later confirmed, however, that in subsequent waves of attacks, Ukraine’s partners had shared intelligence.

“At around 10:40 p.m., we reported that we had received no warnings from our partners about ballistic missiles,” Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for the Ukrainian Air Force, said on national television. “However, during the next three waves of attacks, our partners did provide warnings about the use of ballistic missiles.”

The contradiction and confusion around the lack of intelligence appears to have originated from behind-the-scenes threats made by U.S. officials warning Ukraine to stop attacking Russian refineries or risk being cut off from critical U.S. weapons and intelligence.

The U.S. threatened to withhold intelligence from Ukraine on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

U.S. intelligence officials warned the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington that if there are more strikes on Russian energy sites, the U.S. would immediately halt all intelligence sharing. U.S. intelligence has not been cut off, at least not in full, but the threat remains, the person said.

“The warnings were so widespread that anyone with a Ukrainian-sounding last name got a call,” the person said. The type of missile that hit Kyiv has evaded alert systems previously, but not recently, the person said.

Zelensky confirmed, in an interview Tuesday with NPR radio, that Ukrainian military officials had received warnings and threats regarding intelligence sharing — but that threats had not yet been acted upon.

Trump also told reporters Tuesday that intelligence sharing would continue. “We are helping them, and we are sharing intel. We want the war to end,” he said.

An E.U. diplomat based in Kyiv told The Post that “Zelensky has interests in suggesting that the intel has been stopped — the anti-U.S. wing around Zelensky is pushing this narrative — but I can also imagine that Trump is eager to push Zelensky. In my opinion, both scenarios are possible.”

It was not the first time that Ukrainian radar systems missed ballistic missile attacks, the diplomat noted.

Russia is barred from using Starlink on the battlefield but has attempted to use illicit terminals in its war against Ukraine.

Ask The Post AI

Dive deeper

The Kremlin said Wednesday that it was “too early to draw conclusions” about whether Washington would continue to support Ukraine militarily.

“On the one hand, there are statements that assistance continues to be provided; on the other hand, there are claims that various technical problems have arisen and the information chain has been interrupted,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Regarding potential Starlink restrictions, Peskov said that “it would be better if such brilliant technologies were not used for military purposes at all.”

Ukrainian officials said that Russia’s overnight attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure were a message.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had delivered “yet another negative ‘response’ to the proposal for an energy ceasefire announced by President Trump.”

Trump had announced the ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in a Truth Social post on Sunday, though neither side appeared aware. Zelensky said Monday that he was ready to sign an “energy ceasefire” but would retaliate if Russia were to continue attacking Ukrainian power grids.

Ask The Post AI

Dive deeper

“A targeted Russian ballistic missile strike specifically against energy infrastructure — the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American President,” Zelensky said Wednesday on social media. “The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale — Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United Stat