Zelensky Pushes Back at Trump Over Refinery Strikes

The argument is not a stray diplomatic spat. It sits directly on top of a policy fight over Russian energy, Ukraine’s right to keep hitting targets that fund Moscow’s war, and the widening strain between Washington and Kyiv.

Speaking at an EU summit, Zelensky said he could not accept the US deal with Moscow to import Russian diesel because, as he put it, a gas agreement could come next. The BBC reported that Trump has linked his anger over the refinery strikes to that arrangement, which would send 300,000 tonnes of diesel to “the American and global marketplace.”

Zelensky’s case is blunt enough. If Russian energy sales help finance the war, then asking Ukraine to leave that infrastructure alone while the fighting continues is not neutrality. It is pressure with a clear economic direction.

The BBC reported that Trump had suddenly announced a ceasefire on attacks against energy facilities last week. Kyiv said it would stop striking if Russia did the same, but Moscow said it had never agreed and continued its attacks. After three days, Ukraine resumed its own strikes. That sequence matters because it strips away some of the fog in the language: an announced ceasefire is not much of a ceasefire if one side says it never signed up and keeps firing anyway.

Trump’s own language has hardened with the relationship. In an interview with Newsmax, cited by the BBC, he said he was “not a big fan of Zelensky” and “not a good guy for us to deal with,” adding that the refinery attacks were pushing world oil prices higher.

Zelensky, in Brussels, did not pretend the wider rupture was only about oil. He said there were “many people with good hearts in America” who wanted “to be allies, not to divide or humiliate Europe.” It was the kind of line that tries to separate the United States from its current president without denying who holds the levers right now.

He also used the summit for the more immediate business of war. According to the BBC, Zelensky told the European Council that the war would cost €155bn next year, with at least €70bn needing to come from the EU for defence and weapons. He said Ukraine could produce up to three times more drones if it had the money, and described the shortage of US-made Patriot missiles as a fundamental problem.

The BBC also reported that restrictions had been placed on the US-owned Starlink network that is critical to Ukraine’s military, and that Zelensky called the slowdown a “very dangerous and unpleasant surprise,” saying speeds were still not fully restored on Friday.

EU leaders rallied around him in Brussels. The uncomfortable part for Ukraine is that solidarity and control are different things, and several of the most important controls are still in American hands.