Russia has accused Ukraine of attacking an oil refinery on Thursday after President Volodymyr Zelensky said such strikes, halted at the request of the US, would resume.
Zelensky said he had restricted attacks for three days while Russia continued striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. “We’re done,” he told reporters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Kyiv had also tried to hit refineries on Wednesday – which Ukraine denied – but there had been no “significant damage”.
Zelensky also accused the US of withdrawing intelligence-sharing to pressure Kyiv into ending attacks but Ukrainian defence sources later told reporters some functionality on Starlink satellite services had resumed.
They said “operation while on the move”, part of Starlink’s military service Starshield, had been restored, although it remains unclear whether restrictions on the speed at which drones could fly while still maintaining Starlink internet connection have been fully lifted.
Officials were still working to clarify “the reasons and circumstances” behind the move, the sources added.
In a separate development, seven people are missing after a drone attack set a chemical tanker on the off Romania, according to naval officials. Moscow said it had hit two cargo ships with military cargo heading to Ukraine’s Odesa port, without naming them.
The Kremlin said Kyiv had “attempted a large-scale attack” on a refinery south of Moscow early on Thursday.
According to Russia’s defence ministry, four missiles and dozens of drones were intercepted and the falling debris caused a fire at the site in Ryazan.
Zelensky said dozens of Ukrainian cities had come under Russian attack in the past day.
He previously said he would agree to the “energy ceasefire” announced by US President Donald Trump on Sunday if Moscow also abided by it.
But he accused Russia of ignoring the proposed deal within hours of it being announced, with strikes leaving hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without power. The Kremlin never said it had agreed to the deal.
Zelensky agreed that he felt betrayed by the US when asked by Piers Morgan on Wednesday night, after Washington appeared to withdraw key elements of its support.
European leaders have rallied around the Ukrainian president. Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told the BBC that the US restricting its intelligence-sharing with Kyiv would be a “complete mistake”.
“Because it is a fundamental form of support. This means denying a country any chance of defending itself.”
He added: “Peace will be achieved when Putin will be convinced that there is a stalemate… that he cannot advance anymore. But if he sees a weakness on the Ukrainian front, if the United States takes its resources away, then Putin will think he can win, and so he will continue the war.”
Zelensky met Nato chief Mark Rutte as a two-day summit of European leaders began in Brussels on Thursday. The head of the military alliance said they had discussed “the importance of implementing an energy ceasefire as well as Nato allies’ continuous support for Ukraine”.
Zelensky told the FT that Ukrainian officials had been told by US counterparts that “if you will not stop [the strikes], we will block intelligence”.
Ukraine’s military relies on US early-warning alerts of incoming Russian aerial attacks to mount air defences, limiting successful strikes, while Starlink internet links are used throughout its war effort to guide drones and protect its skies.
There were suggestions a technical glitch was to blame for the sudden Starlink restrictions on Tuesday evening, but owner Elon Musk appeared to deny this and suggested it was the Trump administration`s doing.
“It was not a technical problem, it was the will,” Zelensky told the FT.
Trump has denied halting intelligence-sharing. Starlink’s sister service Starshield is provided to Ukraine under a US defence department contract.
