Zelenskyy Says 'Partners' Object To Oil Strikes
Not 'Americans' or 'Trump'.
Speaking to Newsmax at the Chernobyl nuclear power station this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “partners” have pressed him to stop hitting Russian oil infrastructure. He did not specify which partners he was talking about, but it is obvious he was referring to Europeans rather than the United States.
“We’ve got the messages from partners that, because of this challenge in the Middle East, maybe not to attack some infrastructure, energy infrastructure in Russia”, Zelenskyy told Shelby Wilder. “And of course, I said no, we will respond... nobody proposed an energy ceasefire to us. We are open for this, but if Russia will attack us, we will respond in any way”.
Ukrainian strike drones reportedly hit the last remaining storage tanks at the Tuapse refinery in Krasnodar Krai on the Black Sea yesterday. It was the fourth strike on the facility in eight days. In photos and video posted by local Russians, columns of smoke can be seen reaching the stratosphere.
During 2024, the Biden administration reportedly requested that Ukraine stop hitting Russian oil installations for fear it would affect gasoline prices and swing the election to Donald Trump. Zelenskyy worried in his interview that Trump’s decision to waive sanctions on Russian oil during the Hormuz crisis risks make the war longer. He wants the United States to apply greater “pressure” on Vladimir Putin.
Due to the ‘kinetic sanctions’ against Russian export capacity, it is unclear just how big the windfall Russia has received on recent oil sales really is. Furthermore, unlike the Biden team, the Trump administration has said absolutely nothing about the Ukrainian energy war campaign. They have left strategic decisions up to the Ukrainians instead of attempting ‘escalation management’.
Zelenskyy acknowledged that American aid continues to arrive in Ukraine and says he is still in touch with Trump officials. Russia is “not in a strong position”, Zelenskyy argued, while Ukraine is “in the best position during the last 9–10 months” on the battlefield.
Recent counterattacks by the UAF have succeeded in pushing back the Russians in some areas, while the grinding attritional tactics that were slowly working for Russian forces no longer produce the same gains. A Ukrainian double-pincer advance near Hulyaipole today has Russian Z-bloggers warning of a deteriorating defensive situation.
Although he surely enjoys the reduced pressure on his government to make peace, Zelenskyy would like the US to put more “pressure” on Putin to reach a diplomatic agreement. “I am afraid, of course, because Russia doesn't feel the pressure, and for them it's OK to continue this way of war”, he told Wilder. Despite the renewed progress, “it's better to stop the war” altogether.
While Zelenskyy did not name the European “partners” who expressed their concerns, at least one is easy to guess: Hungary. Péter Magyar, who defeated Viktor Orbán in the April elections, has inherited his country’s dependency on Russian fossil fuels.
Orbán’s Hungary was hardly the only European state to worry about the effects on its own economy, just the most outspoken. Indeed, if Europe had ever developed the will to stop buying Russian oil and gas at any point since 2022, the war would already be over.
“I’m sure that the United States is a great partner for Ukraine, and Ukrainians can also strengthen the United States,” Zelenskyy said. “In business, people say it’s win-win, so why not to win?” Whatever he thinks about Vice President J.D. Vance, he is talking in Donald Trump’s language.