kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian drones attacked a refinery in Russia’s Ryazan region early Thursday, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a brief truce rejected by Moscow was finished in the middle increased tensions with Washington.
The drone attack sparked a fire at a refinery about 300 kilometers southeast of Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry and Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said. Russian online news site Astra published what it said was a photograph of the fire.
A senior Ukrainian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Ukraine had struck the refinery.
Zelensky complains about US position towards Ukraine
This strike could further complicate kyiv’s relations with US President Donald Trump, who still sour these last few days.
Zelensky is outraged by Russia continuous aerial bombardments of his country’s energy infrastructure, in apparent defiance of Trump’s demand on Sunday for both sides to end these attacks.
The Ukrainian government has said it respects the ceasefire, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Ukraine has never stopped its strikes against refineries that have been exploited. hurt Russia. It was not possible to independently verify each party’s claims.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Ukraine’s strikes on oil facilities a “direct and crude challenge to President Trump.”
Zelensky complained that, although he granted Trump’s request for a truce, Ukraine in recent days has been denied the usual Western intelligence on Russian ballistic missile strikes and that limits have been placed on its use of U.S.-made Starlink communications terminals. Both are vital to Ukrainian defenses and attack operations.
The Ukrainian leader said his patience was running out. He said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday that Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries would resume. “We’re done,” he reportedly said.
Trump reached a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import Russian dieseldespite international efforts to sanction Russia for its invasion and diplomatically isolate Putin.
Zelensky criticized the deal, saying it would allow Russia to continue its efforts. large-scale invasion of Ukraine which began more than four and a half years ago. U.S. efforts under Trump to end the war have made no progress.
Zelenskyy said in an interview with Piers Morgan on the British journalist’s YouTube show on Wednesday that he felt betrayed by Trump’s deal with Putin, the energy ceasefire announcement and Starlink’s operational problems.
“Really, yes, between us,” Zelenskyy replied to Morgan when asked if he felt betrayed by the US president. “Our country must survive and we are counting on our true partners, our strategic partners, the United States and President Trump. »
He said the US behavior “was really strange and it wasn’t like between partners but they turned off Starlink, so really crazy steps between us.”
Zelensky says US position is not ‘on the right side of history’
In the same interview, Zelensky said that “we are losing a strong partner” in the United States.
He said “it’s painful when President Trump chooses a side, not ours. But we’re OK with him being in the middle.”
Zelenskyy said someone is pushing Trump into a position that is “not on the right side of history.”
Starlink speed limits have stifled Ukrainian efforts to defend and retaliate against Russia, kyiv officials said.
Elon Musk noted on X that the military version of Starlink, called Starshield, is controlled by the US military and Trump.
The absence of Western intelligence makes Ukraine more vulnerable to Russian ballistic missiles. Trump said the United States has continued to share intelligence with Ukraine.
Ukraine turns to Europe for more help
Amid concerns that the Trump administration may withdraw support for Ukraine, Zelensky traveled to Brussels on Thursday for talks with European Union leaders attending a two-day summit.
Zelensky arrived in Belgium on Thursday and said he would meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron and the prime ministers of Poland, Denmark and Belgium.
The day before, he had gone to London, where he had won promises of additional help by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
Asked whether the EU still trusts Trump, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: “We definitely have a different approach to this war. We see that we need to put pressure on the aggressor to stop the war, not on the victim to surrender.”
“Pressing Ukraine is not the right approach, and that is why Europe stands with Ukraine,” Kallas told reporters.
Russian strike in Ukraine kills 3 civilians
Three people were killed and six others injured after the Kirovohrad region in central Ukraine was the target of a Russian drone attack that lasted more than ten hours, Ukrainian emergency services said on Thursday.
Zelensky told X that between midnight and Thursday morning, Russia launched more than 850 drones into Ukraine, adding that the barrage came “precisely at a time when the speed of our defensive capabilities is artificially limited.”
Russian air attacks hit 15 Ukrainian regions, he said.
“It is obvious that Russia deliberately chose to intensify its attacks after obtaining sanctions relief and seeing attempts to pressure Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “It is important that everyone in America stands not with the aggressor, but with our efforts to protect lives, end this war and ensure security.”
Ukrainian air defenses stopped 536 Russian drones in a large-scale night attack, the Ukrainian Air Force said, but hits were recorded at 31 locations.
A Ukrainian missile destroyed six fighter jets at an airfield in southwest Russia, Zelensky said. The planes were used to deliver powerful glide bombs, he said.
“Russia is prolonging the war, so our long-term operations will continue,” he said on social media.
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 166 Ukrainian drones overnight. It said its forces hit two ships carrying military cargo.
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Samya Kullab in kyiv and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this story.
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Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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