KYIV — Ukraine attacked a Russian oil refinery Thursday, abandoning a brief truce involving energy-related targets that it said Moscow did not heed, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he felt betrayed by U.S. President Trump.
The drone strike started a fire at the refinery about 180 miles southeast of Moscow in Russia’s Ryazan region, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The strike could further complicate Kyiv’s relations with Mr. Trump, which have soured again in recent days amid deepening tensions between Ukraine and Washington.
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Mr. Zelenskyy said he was outraged by Russia’s continuing aerial bombardment of energy infrastructure in apparent defiance of Mr. Trump’s demand on Sunday for both sides to halt those attacks.
Despite going along with Mr. Trump’s demand for a truce, Mr. Zelenskyy complained, Ukraine in recent days was denied the usual Western intelligence on Russian ballistic missile strikes, and limits were placed on its use of U.S.-made Starlink communication terminals. Both are vital for the Ukrainian military.
He said his patience had run out, telling the Financial Times in an interview published Thursday that Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries would resume.
“We’re done,” Mr. Zelenskyy was quoted as saying.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Ukraine never stopped its strikes on refineries. It wasn’t possible to independently verify each side’s claims.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov labeled Ukraine’s strikes on oil facilities as a “direct and crude challenge to President Trump.”
Another point of tension with Ukraine is a deal Mr. Trump made with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import Russian diesel, despite international efforts to sanction Russia for its invasion and diplomatically isolate Mr. Putin.
Mr. Zelenskyy slammed the agreement, saying it would allow Russia to press on with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began more than 4½ years ago. U.S. efforts under Mr. Trump to end the war have made no progress.
In an interview late Wednesday with Piers Morgan on the British journalist’s YouTube show, Mr. Zelenskyy said he felt betrayed by Mr. Trump’s deal with Mr. Putin, the energy ceasefire announcement and the Starlink limits that restricted the use of Ukrainian drones.
Asked if he felt betrayed by the American president, he said, “Really, yes, between us.”
“Our country has to survive, and we count on our real partners, strategic partners, the United States and President Trump,” Mr. Zelenskyy told Mr. Morgan.
“It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side. But we are OK that he’s in the middle,” he said.
Mr. Zelenskyy said someone is pushing Mr. Trump into a stance that is “not the right side of history.”
Elon Musk noted on X that the military version of Starlink, called Starshield, is controlled by the U.S. military and Mr. Trump.
Meanwhile, the sinking of a ship in the Black Sea Thursday after a drone strike is the latest in a long line of collateral incidents from the fighting in Ukraine that are fueling fears that Russia intends to widen the war.
Five people were rescued after the San Marino-flagged Wine Trader, a chemical tanker traveling from Tunisia to Romania, caught fire in the attack about 15 miles southeast of the port town of Sulina, according to the Romanian Naval Authority. Seven others are still missing.
Romanian President Nicusor Dan said in Brussels that the cargo vessel had been struck by a drone, as was another ship in a separate incident the night before. Dan did not state the drones’ origin.
Similar drone incursions have occurred this month in the exclusive economic zones of Romania and Bulgaria, both NATO and European Union members.
On Tuesday, drone strikes on two ships off the coast of Bulgaria prompted emergency rescue operations for 11 crew members from the HS Dignity, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship, who remain missing.
The other ship, a Ukrainian-operated coastal freighter named the Chelsea 3, was sailing under a Maltese flag. Rescuers evacuated all 15 crew members, with five receiving treatment for minor injuries. The crew reported that the ship’s deck and hull were hit by three aerial drones.
The incidents on Tuesday, for which Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said Russia was likely responsible, came a week after sea and aerial drones struck two other commercial vessels in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea. A Togo-flagged ship sank, while a Bulgarian ferry evacuated the 18-member crew of a damaged Palau-flagged vessel.
A day earlier, on Oct. 5, a Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying corn caught fire following a drone attack and later sank in the Black Sea off Romania’s coast. Two people died and 11 crew members were rescued.
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