Ukraine has resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries, ending a brief truce on energy targets after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he feels betrayed by US President Donald Trump. Early on Thursday, October 15, Ukrainian drones and missiles hit the Ryazan oil refinery southeast of Moscow, setting it ablaze — hours after Zelenskyy told interviewer Piers Morgan, "Really, yes, between us," when asked whether he felt betrayed by the American president.
The Ryazan strike ends a short truce
The overnight attack targeted the Rosneft-owned Ryazan refinery, about 300 kilometers southeast of Moscow, one of Russia's largest with roughly 17 million tonnes of annual crude capacity, according to the Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi. Russia's Defense Ministry said air defenses downed four Ukrainian "Flamingo" missiles and 69 drones aimed at the site, and that falling debris sparked the fire. The strike was confirmed both by Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov — "The material damage is now being assessed. Emergency services are working at the scene," he said — and by a senior Ukrainian official speaking anonymously.
The refinery has been hit before, including a September 6 strike on its Isomalk-2 unit. The attack ended a roughly three-day pause that followed Trump's October 11 call for an energy ceasefire, which Ukraine said it honored while Russia kept bombing Ukrainian power infrastructure. "The block on attacking refineries is out. We're done," Zelenskyy told the Financial Times, and on X he added: "Russia is dragging out the war, so our long-range operations will continue."
Zelenskyy's grievances with Trump
In the Morgan interview, recorded late on October 14, and the FT interview published Thursday, Zelenskyy laid out three complaints. First, Trump's deal for the United States to import Russian diesel, which Zelenskyy said lets Moscow "press on with its full-scale invasion" — one day after announcing the diesel arrangement, Trump called for Ukraine to replace Zelenskyy and railed against Ukrainian refinery strikes, Reuters reported. Second, the uneven energy truce, which Kyiv observed while Russia continued hitting Ukrainian energy sites. Third, US restrictions on intelligence and Starlink: Ukraine was denied its usual Western intelligence on Russian ballistic-missile strikes and had its Starlink terminal use curtailed — Elon Musk noted that the military-grade "Starshield" service is US-military-controlled, and Trump denied halting intelligence sharing.
"It's painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side. But we are OK that he's in the middle," Zelenskyy said, adding that Washington was on "not the right side of history" and risked "losing a strong partner."
A night of strikes on both sides
The same night, Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the war: more than 850 drones at Ukraine, hitting 15 regions and leaving 600,000 people without power, according to Reuters. In Kirovohrad, a drone attack lasting over 10 hours killed 3 civilians and injured 6, emergency services said. Ukraine's air defenses stopped 536 drones, though impacts were recorded at 31 locations. On the other side of the ledger, Zelenskyy announced that a Ukrainian missile strike destroyed six Su-34M warplanes at the Borisoglebsk airfield in Russia's Voronezh region.
Reactions from Moscow and Europe
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed Ukraine never stopped its refinery strikes, while Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called them a "direct and crude challenge to President Trump." EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas pushed back: "Squeezing Ukraine is not the right approach... Europe is standing beside Ukraine." Zelenskyy traveled to Brussels on Thursday for an EU summit, a day after securing fresh British backing from Prime Minister Andy Burnham in London.
The bottom line: the energy truce is dead, Kyiv's deep-strike campaign is back, and the most consequential partnership in the war — Ukraine's with Washington — has rarely looked more strained.
Watch: "Trump betrayed Zelensky. Ukr strikes RUS Oil Refinery" — a news-commentary video covering Zelenskyy's "we're done" announcement, the Starlink dispute, the overnight drone barrage, and the strike that destroyed six Su-34M bombers at Borisoglebsk airfield.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Volatile Reaction (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: AP News; The Korea Times; ThePrint (Reuters); Militarnyi