Ukraine will resume strikes on Russian refineries, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Financial Times in an interview published on Thursday.
“The block (on attacking refineries) is out. We’re done,” Zelenskiy told the newspaper.
Hours after this, a big Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Ryazan region caused a fire to break out at an oil refinery, the regional governor said on Thursday.
"The material damage is now being assessed. Emergency services are working at the scene," Ryazan governor Pavel Malkov said in a post on Telegram.
A warehouse elsewhere was damaged in the attacks, he said, without giving further details.
The Ryazan refinery is owned by Russian oil major Rosneft and feeds Moscow with fuel. It has been attacked several times by drones in recent months. The refinery accounts for almost 5 per cent of Russia's total oil refining throughout.
Malkov said earlier on Thursday that classes in schools and kindergartens in two districts had been cancelled because of what he called mass drone attacks.
He was critical of Washington’s eagerness to strike business deals with Moscow and US President Donald Trump’s apparent admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the FT report said.
Trump on Saturday called for Ukraine to replace Zelenskiy and railed against Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, one day after announcing a diesel supply deal with Russia, aiming to ease pressure on fuel prices that have soared since the US-Israeli war with Iran began in February.
Ukraine halted strikes on Russian oil refineries and its other energy infrastructure for three days following Trump's announcement of an energy ceasefire, Zelenskiy said earlier this week on X.
Despite Ukraine’s pause, Zelenskiy told the FT his forces had been left without US early-warning alerts for incoming ballistic missiles, while Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications service had been slowed down across the country, hampering frontline operations and medium-range strikes against Russian military sites.
Ukrainian military officials were told by their US counterparts that “if you will not stop (the energy strikes), we will block intelligence”, although it was subsequently presented to Kyiv as a technical glitch, Zelenskiy said, dismissing the idea that failures of the Starlink satellite system might have been caused by a fault.
“It was not a technical problem, it was the will,” he told the FT.
Asked whether Ukraine would be open to halting energy strikes as a way of repairing relations with the White House, he told the newspaper he could only agree if in return he was given more US-made Patriot interceptors, calling it the “minimum” that would be acceptable.