Zelensky: “The ban is over”, as Ukraine resumes strikes on Russian refineries after 850 Shaheds in a single day

Ukraine is resuming strikes on Russian refineries, President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Financial Times in an interview on Thursday, October 15. “The ban is over. We are done,” he said, according to excerpts of the interview.

Kyiv had halted the strikes for three days at Washington’s request, after the “energy truce” announced by Donald Trump on October 11, while Russia continued to hit Ukrainian energy. Zelensky said he would agree to stop hitting Russian oil infrastructure only in exchange for more Patriot interceptors, which he called the “minimum”. On the halt in US intelligence sharing and the Starlink problems, he said it “was not a technical problem, it was will”.

Fire at the Ryazan refinery

The same night, Ryazan governor Pavel Malkov reported that a large Ukrainian drone attack set fire to the city’s refinery. “Material damage is being assessed. Emergency services are at the scene,” he wrote. According to the Moscow Times, the Ryazan refinery accounts for about 5% of Russian refining capacity. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kyiv was thereby coming into “serious contradiction with the peace efforts of the United States”.

850 Shaheds in under 24 hours

“Practically all of yesterday and again tonight a massive Shahed attack continued, with continuous waves, and for not a single hour was our sky clear of them. From the start of yesterday to 9 a.m. today there were already more than 850 Shaheds, and this at a time of an artificial speed limit for our defence capabilities,” Zelensky wrote.

The limit refers to the speed at which Starlink terminals work, the subject of Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski’s message to Elon Musk, covered in our report on Sikorski and Musk over Starlink limits.

• Three people were killed in Kropyvnytskyi and three in the Dnipro region.
• Ukraine’s Air Force said that from 18:00 on October 14 Russia launched 2 Kh-59 guided missiles from the Black Sea and 580 Shahed, Gerbera and decoy drones.
• 536 drones were shot down or neutralised, and strikes were recorded at 31 locations.

After meeting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels, Zelensky wrote that since yesterday the Russians had launched “almost 1,000 drones”, and asked for ballistic missile interceptors and ammunition for F-16s.

Kallas: strikes on refineries are self-defence

EU High Representative Kaja Kallas backed Kyiv’s logic. “If we look at international law, it is clear that this is for Ukraine’s defence, because that is where the financing of this war that kills Ukrainians every day comes from,” she told Euronews. “Most of the war’s financing comes from oil. That is why Ukraine targets the refineries, while Russia targets energy infrastructure inside Ukraine, to cause as much pain as it can to the Ukrainian people in the coming winter.” Her remarks at the European Council are covered in Kallas at the European Council.