Trump criticizes Zelensky for having resumed attacks against Russian refineries: "It's a shame"

Barcelona / BrusselsThe confrontation between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy is becoming more evident with each passing day. The US president continues to pressure his Ukrainian counterpart to stop attacking Russian refineries, while he negotiates the lifting of sanctions on Russian hydrocarbons and cuts military aid to Kyiv. Ukraine resumed its bombings this Thursday against these types of Russian facilities, after three days of suspension following Trump's announcement of an alleged immediate energy truce, which Moscow neither accepted nor complied with. "Enough is enough," said Zelenskyy in an interview with the Financial Times in which he announced that the blockade on attacks against Russian energy infrastructure was over. Hours later, Trump reacted by stating that "it is a disgrace".

Ukraine attacked an oil refinery this Thursday in the Ryazan region, about 280 kilometers southeast of Moscow, which is owned by the large state oil company Rosneft and helps supply the capital.

"Everything he [Zelenskyy] is doing is driving up the price of oil in the world. I think it is a disgrace," said the US president in an interview on the Newsmax channel. "There are many targets you can attack, but when you attack diesel refineries where you make diesel, something we need, that the world needs, then you are not doing the world a service," he continued.

As he did at the end of last week, he insisted that the Ukrainian president is more difficult to deal with than Vladimir Putin. "I am not a big fan of Zelenskyy," he said, adding: "I think both of them would like [the war] to end, but I find it more difficult to deal with Zelenskyy than with Putin." And he said that the Ukrainian president has no intention of reaching any peace agreement: "He doesn't want to reach any agreement. He says he wants to reach an agreement, but he doesn't want to."

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has traveled to Brussels this week, where he will meet with European leaders this Friday. On the table are the EU's aid packages for the difficult winter ahead and Kyiv's progress in joining the community club. But the issue that really hangs over the summit is the lifting of sanctions by Trump. Without making any explicit reference to it, Zelenskyy thanked the European leaders for their help, who, he said, "are true leaders." For its part, Brussels has reiterated its support for him. "It is not the time to ease sanctions on Russia," said the President of the European Council, António Costa, who claimed that what is needed now is to increase pressure "to ensure that Russia accepts a real ceasefire" and stops this war.

Ukraine is running out of Patriots

All this pressure from Trump on the Ukrainian leader comes after the US president and his Russian counterpart agreed last Friday on a deal that will allow the release of about two million tons of Russian diesel to the US over the next two months. This is clearly a help to Moscow, while US assistance to Kyiv remains blocked. This same Friday, the CNN network reported that Ukraine has run out of Patriot missiles, of US manufacture, which are one of the few defensive weapons capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. At the same time, this week Ukraine has warned that it has stopped receiving intelligence information prior to various Russian attacks and that access to Starshield has been restricted, SpaceX's internet satellite service, which is key for communications and drone operations in Ukraine, as they help guide the devices that operate at long distance.

According to the Reuters agency, the order to limit the satellite system in Ukraine came from within the White House. According to several anonymous officials, the leaders of the Department of Defense—which is the main client of Starshield—received a message with the order to reduce the service for the Ukrainian army.