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Kyiv had refrained from attacking Russian refineries but resumed strikes on Thursday after the US made a deal with Putin
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Vladimir Putin has vowed Russia will response after Ukraine struck Russian oil refineries, it has been reported.
The Russian president said the strikes had had not caused significant damage, Interfax news agency reported, but Russia would respond.
It comes after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was “done” supporting a ceasefire on energy targets announced by US president Donald Trump and ignored by Russia.
Since Trump’s surprise announcement on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt attacks on energy, Kyiv had suspended attacks on Russian refineries, which Trump blames for raising diesel prices on global markets.
But in the days that followed, Russia rained down deadly missile and drone strikes, including on energy targets such as power stations, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, Zelensky said Ukraine’s patience had run out.
“The block (on attacking refineries) is out. We’re done,” he told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, as Ukraine reported nationwide Starlink interruptions hampering frontline operations and defences against attacks, Elon Musk blamed Donald Trump for restrictions imposed on the communications service.
Kemi Badenoch has pledged to build Britain its own £10bn ‘Iron Dome’ missile interception system aimed at protecting the UK from future military attacks.
The system, called “Britannia Shield”, would provide a network of radar, command and control systems to detect incoming strikes along with interceptor missiles and counter-drone capabilities.
Announcing the pledge on the third day of the party’s annual conference in Birmingham last week, the leader of the opposition accused Labour of failing to keep the country safe and said she would slash the UK’s welfare bill to fund her defence plans.
Read the full story:
Trump’s moves against Ukraine – including a diesel deal with Putin and a row over restricting Starlink – mean he must now be seen as a hostile force in Europe, explains world affairs editor Sam Kiley:
After Russia annexed the Donbas region in 2014, Shakhtar Donetsk have not played at their stadium for 12 years. This season, they will play their Champions League home games in west London.
Kieran Jackson sat with the punters – male and female, old and young, friends and family – for an altogether different spectator vibe:
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries had not caused significant damage, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia will respond to these strikes, Putin said.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russian diesel had begun to reach global markets following an agreement with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said last week that Russia had agreed to supply diesel to global markets in an effort to lower fuel prices, while Moscow partially lifted its ban on diesel exports from October 10 following the agreement.
“The diesel has started reaching global markets and is expected to have a positive effect on stabilising oil markets, although it will not be enough to fully stabilize them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a daily conference call.
LSEG data showed on Wednesday that Russia had resumed diesel export loadings from the Baltic port of Primorsk.
According to the shipping data, a tanker carrying around 40,000 metric tons of ultra-low sulphur diesel was loaded on October 13 and was heading towards Morocco.
Volodymyr Zelensky said that a massive Russian air attack on power plants in Ukraine showed Moscow’s contempt for Donald Trump’s energy ceasefire, as Europe threw its weight behind Kyiv.
Writing on social media on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president condemned a Russian ballistic missile strike on “the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American president”.
“The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale,” he added. “Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect towards the United States. Russia does not consider the American president’s statements strong.”
In full:
Russian federal budget revenue from oil and gas taxes is expected to increase by 10% year on year in October to reach 1 trillion roubles ($11.97 billion), according to a Reuters calculation.
Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer and exporter after the United States and Saudi Arabia, relies heavily on oil and gas sales, which help finance its military campaign in Ukraine.
The revenue from oil and gas taxes account for about a fifth of total government income.
Those revenues are expected to more than double this month from September largely due to quarterly payments of the additional profit-based tax on oil production.
Excluding the tax, October revenue is expected to exceed September levels by about 164 billion roubles, or 36%.
Global oil prices have soared as the conflict in the Middle East disrupts supplies. However, the positive effect of higher oil prices will be partly offset by an estimated 5% decline in production in the third quarter of 2026 compared with the same period of 2025.
Russian president Vladimir Putin says that Russia will respond to Ukraine’s strikes on refineries, according to the Interfax news agency.
Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery on Thursday, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was “done” supporting a ceasefire on energy targets announced by US President Donald Trump and ignored by Russia.
Since Trump’s surprise announcement on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt attacks on energy, Kyiv had suspended attacks on Russian refineries, which Trump blames for raising diesel prices on global markets.
But in the days that followed, Russia rained down deadly missile and drone strikes, including on energy targets such as power stations, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s patience had run out. He told the newspaper: “The block (on attacking refineries) is out. We’re done.”
By effectively walking away from Trump’s demand that Ukraine halt attacks on refineries, Zelenskiy risks deepening the biggest rift between Kyiv and Washington since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A source in Ukraine’s defence ministry told Reuters on Thursday that Starshield satellite functionality while in motion has now been restored, a day after the service was throttled at speeds over 100mph. Zelenskyy’s office confirmed Starlink’s functionality was back in comments to the FT.
The source said the defence ministry would continue to seek clarification on the reasons for Wednesday’s disruption of the military-grade version of SpaceX’s internet service.
The dispute has exacerbated tensions between Ukraine and the US, with Zelenskyy vowing to restart strikes on Russian oil refineries, expressing annoyance at the disruption to intelligence and Starlink as well as Washington’s recent business deals with Russia.
The US president was roundly criticised after announcing a deal last week to lift sanctions on Russia in return for Moscow releasing a limited quantity of diesel to the US and global market.
Trump has sought to bring down energy prices for American voters ahead of the November midterms and pinned the blame on Ukraine for striking refineries inside Russia, even as Russia carries out similar attacks the other way.
Asked whether Ukraine would be open to halting energy strikes as a way of repairing relations with the White House, Zelenskyy told the FT he could only agree if in return he was given more US-made Patriot interceptors, calling it the “minimum” that would be acceptable.
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