Ukraine's refinery strikes are now a bargaining chip: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv would halt them if Moscow stopped hitting Ukrainian power infrastructure — or if Washington let Ukraine use Starshield over Russia or supplied Patriot missiles instead. The conditions, set out in an interview aired on Sunday, came after the United States pressed Ukraine to suspend the refinery campaign because, Washington argues, it has added to high energy prices, Reuters reported on Monday. The exchange played out over another night of Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities and power stations, in which six people were injured, Ukrainian officials said.
What did Zelenskiy actually say?
Zelenskiy set a direct swap and two alternatives. In order for Kyiv to halt the strikes, Moscow must stop hitting power infrastructure, he said. Alternatively, the United States should allow the use of Starshield over Russia to detect missile launch sites, or supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles, he added, Reuters reported. Starshield is the military service built on SpaceX's Starlink constellation; its use over Ukraine was throttled earlier this month in a dispute this site has covered, and Ukrainian officials say speeds have since been restored. Zelenskiy's framing links three files Washington usually treats separately — the refinery campaign, Ukraine's winter power grid, and high-end air defence — into a single negotiation.
What happened overnight?
The strikes Zelenskiy wants stopped continued while the interview aired. A Russian strike on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia injured four people overnight, regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram on Monday. Two more people were injured in Russian strikes on the Chernihiv region, Ukraine's emergency service said, Reuters reported. Both injury tolls rest on Ukrainian official accounts reported by Reuters; no independent confirmation was available, and they are published as attributed. Russia's defence ministry, also on Telegram, said it hit a power station in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, a warehouse in the surrounding region, and another power station in the Khmelnitskiy region. It also said it targeted port infrastructure in Chornomorsk and a cargo vessel en route to Odesa, which it said was used for military purposes — the ministry's own characterisation, published as its claim.
What would Zelenskiy's alternatives actually change?
Both alternatives target the same gap: warning and interception. Starshield over Russia to detect missile launch sites would give Ukraine earlier sight of the launches that hit its power stations — the same service whose throttling over Ukraine itself, from October 14 to 24, cut Ukraine's jet-powered drone interception rate from 77 percent to about 74 percent even while it was restricted, the Institute for the Study of War assessed. Patriot missiles are the other named ask: the high-end interceptors Ukraine uses against ballistic missiles, in short supply throughout the war. Zelenskiy's list is therefore not a menu of unrelated demands — each item is a different way of reducing the damage Russian strikes do to the grid whose protection is his stated reason for the refinery campaign.
Why is Washington pressing Kyiv now?
Energy prices are the stated reason, and the calendar is the context. The United States has pressed Ukraine to suspend strikes on Russian oil refineries, which it argues added to high energy prices — a sensitive issue for the Trump administration amid its war on Iran as midterm elections approach next month, Reuters reported. Oil remains elevated even after Monday's pullback: Brent fell 1.82 percent to $114.60 and WTI fell 2.07 percent to $101.13 in early Monday trade, but only after settling nearly $3 higher on Friday and finishing the week up 6 percent and 2.3 percent respectively, as attacks on Saudi Arabia kept supply concerns in focus (see the snapshot box). Kyiv's refinery campaign is one of the few levers Ukraine holds that reaches directly into that price — which is precisely why Zelenskiy is pricing it, rather than simply conceding it.
What is the refinery campaign doing on the ground?
Ukraine's long-range strike campaign continued over the weekend in parallel. Ukrainian forces conducted a series of long-range strikes against industrial facilities in Russia on October 24 and 25, the Institute for the Study of War assessed: geolocated footage showed smoke rising from the Energiya plant in Yelets, Lipetsk Oblast, after a reported missile strike, and the regional governor acknowledged a strike on an industrial zone; a Ukrainian OSINT channel reported a strike on the VSMPO-AVISMA titanium plant in Berezniki, Perm Krai, whose governor acknowledged a strike on an industrial facility in northern Perm Krai; and satellite imagery published on October 25 showed significant damage to the Proton-Electrotex plant in Oryol City, which produces semiconductor silicon wafers and microchips for Russian weapons systems, after a Ukrainian strike on October 24, ISW reported. Those targets — missile power cells, military titanium, weapons semiconductors — are the industrial base behind the strikes on Ukraine's grid, which is the logic of Zelenskiy's proposed swap: each side stops hitting the infrastructure that sustains the other's war.
This report is drawn from Reuters' October 26, 2026 report, opened and read in full on reuters.com, the Institute for the Study of War's October 25, 2026 campaign assessment, opened and read, and Reuters' October 26, 2026 oil report, opened and read in full via TBS News. Injury figures are Ukrainian officials' accounts reported by Reuters and are attributed as such; Russian defence ministry target claims are the ministry's own. Market figures are early-Monday snapshots checked at publish time; they are not live prices and are not financial advice.
