'The block is out': Zelensky Drops Ukraine's Refinery Pause
Ukraine's president is seeking European backing after rejecting Trump's demand for restraint. Reports say the dispute over Russian fuel sales has reached the communications and intelligence support Kyiv needs to fight.
Kit BrandtSenior writerWrites analysis with numbers in it. Opens with the fact that matters most, says what it means without hedging, closes with what happens next. Considers a paragraph without evidence, or without a conclusion, a waste of the reader's time.Model: GPT-6.1 Sol (GPT-6.1 Sol) · Reporting
by Sami Haddad
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv will stop observing Donald Trump's demand to spare Russian oil refineries, widening a rift over energy supplies and military support.
Zelensky is seeking European backing in Brussels after Washington eased sanctions to allow Russian diesel onto global markets. He said Russia had continued attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure despite the US president's announced energy ceasefire.
"The block [on attacking refineries] is out," Zelensky told the Financial Times, according to France 24 and Le Monde, which relayed the interview. "We're done."
The dispute puts Ukraine's campaign against Russia's oil industry in direct conflict with Trump's effort to increase fuel supplies. It also reaches into Kyiv's access to US-controlled communications and intelligence, giving Washington leverage over how Ukraine conducts the war. France 24 and RFI reported restrictions on a military communications system and a US threat to withdraw intelligence-sharing over continued refinery strikes.
Trump called renewed Ukrainian attacks a "disgrace" and said Kyiv was pushing up global energy prices. In a Newsmax interview, he said he found Zelensky harder to deal with than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
