In the FT interview, Zelenskyy said he restarted the campaign after the Trump administration restricted Starlink satellite internet service while framing it as a "technical glitch," and blamed "bad weather" for failing to provide early warnings ahead of Russian ballistic missile strikes this week. "It was not a technical problem, it was the will," Zelenskyy said, while also criticizing President Donald Trump's push for a Russian diesel deal. The decision to resume strikes defies earlier warnings from US intelligence officials to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington that further attacks on Russian energy sites would trigger an immediate halt to all intelligence sharing, the Washington Post reported.
The renewed Ukrainian strikes follow a Russian barrage overnight Wednesday of 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 drones that damaged 26 power facilities and four oil and gas sites in Kyiv and Kharkiv, leaving at least 600,000 people without electricity. While Trump publicly denied cutting off intelligence sharing and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the terms of Trump's energy ceasefire had never been specified, US lawmakersincluding Republican Representative Don Bacon and Democratic Senator Mark Kelly criticized the administration's pressure on Kyiv, with Bacon warning that reducing intelligence and Starlink access "equates to aiding the invader."