Ukraine's Zelensky defies Trump with Russian refinery strikes

For more on this story, we can bring in our international affairs editor, Angela Diffley. Angela, we've had Vladimir Zelensky, who's been speaking to various British media, and he seems betrayed. Yes, he actually used the word. He does seem really angry. He told the British journalist, Piers Morgan, that he felt betrayed by the United States. He said to the Financial Times, in answer to a question about repairing the relationship, He said we didn't break the relationship, slightly paraphrasing there, and that he felt under no obligation to to make to build bridges right now. He is really angry. And, you know, there are two aspects to this. There's the rhetoric we've just seen. And there is, he said very clearly, we're done. We are restarting our attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. This Gulliver was telling us yesterday that the Ukrainians had quietly suspended it for three days. The Russians continued with their attacks. And so Zelensky said, that is it. We are restarting our attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. He is actually in the face of what is clearly and he's not waiting for any formal or official admissions. He has clearly decided, deduced, that the Trump administration was behind the suspension of Starlink and that the Trump administration withheld intelligence sharing. That they more or less admitted. They said, if you don't stop attacks, some U.S. officials said to Ukrainian officials, if you do not stop attacks on Russian infrastructure, we will withhold intelligence. That is what happened. So he's pretty clear about what has happened. Interestingly for Donald Trump, Zelensky is getting a little bit of a bounce in popularity in Ukraine as he stands up to Donald Trump. Donald Trump, who has said loudly and clearly, you know, Ukraine needs a new president. The more he attacks Zelensky, the more it has an adverse effect. Zelensky gains in popularity. And I think we can expect to see Zelensky, who has really taken the gloves off, really try to shape American public opinion ahead of the midterms in as much as it's possible. We know Trump is desperate for a deal. The deal with Russia isn't going to make any difference to lowering fuel prices, but still he went ahead with it. And I think that Zelensky will try to push the idea, what is an American president doing, being best friends with the United States' traditional foe in order to get personal business deals. And I think we will see more and more of that coming up to the midterms. He intends, I think, to hit Trump back on the domestic scene, just as Trump has tried to do with Zelensky. You know, while you were speaking, Angela, we played images of that White House meeting with Donald Trump. I mean, the relationship with the U.S. and Ukraine and between these two men has seesawed so much. I'm just wondering, can Europe really help if Donald Trump really does walk away and really stop sharing intelligence and really cuts off Stalin? On a military and logistics level, no, it can in no way replace. the US isn't doing much militarily but those vital things, Starlink the intelligence sharing no, the European Union cannot step in and replace that it is a huge hit however the European Union tomorrow Zelensky will be joining them, we heard there about their budget meeting, he'll be joining them tomorrow they will be talking about giving more funding to Ukraine that is because Ukraine has used up a lot of what was already expected to last until the end of 2027 because its economy is in such difficulty. Now, the problem there, of course, is that there are so many elections within Europe. In France, if Marine Le Pen is elected, and she is at the moment topping the polls, that doesn't in any way mean she will win, but she has a very strong lead. She has made very clear that she will withdraw financing for Ukraine. She will push Europe to do so and that France will not be coughing up any more money. She has made that very clear. That said, it appears that the Americans in Miami, in these negotiations to which the European Union, France, Germany and EU members, NATO members are party, they floated the idea of unfreezing Russian assets and giving the money to a Washington supervised fund to find its way to Russia. Probably the EU has said absolutely not. Yeah, the US is also planning to invite Vladimir Putin to that G7 meeting later on. we'll see what happens thank you very much uh for that uh uh angela angela definitely