A dispute that has run for about a week

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused US President Donald Trump of pressing Ukraine to capitulate to Russia, in an interview with Bloomberg. The accusation escalates a confrontation between the two leaders that began about a week earlier. Zelensky also said he hoped relations with Washington would improve after the midterm elections. Trump had waived expected sanctions targeting Russia's energy economy on Saturday, 17 October, and had earlier called renewed Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure a disgrace.

A Patriot missile offer in exchange for a refinery pause

Zelensky proposed that Ukraine stop attacking Russian refineries, a step Trump has requested to bring down high diesel costs in the United States, in return for more Patriot air defence missiles. In the Bloomberg interview he said Ukraine would not target Russian diesel production if it received missiles to protect its own facilities. He added that Washington wants Ukraine to stop hitting the diesel plants altogether, and warned that Ukraine could be cut off from something if it kept striking them, without specifying what. Under the energy truce Trump proposed, Ukraine would hold off on Russian refineries while Russia continued attacks on Ukraine's energy system. Washington reportedly threatened to cut Ukraine off from intelligence data if it refused.

Intelligence sharing and the Starshield dispute

Zelensky told NBC's Meet the Press that the United States had resumed intelligence sharing after a pause. He said he was thankful, and that Ukraine had not received the warning data during three days of ballistic missile attacks. Zelensky argued that only the United States has the intelligence that tells Ukraine when Russia launches ballistic missiles.

“It was blocked for some period of time. And then it was deblocked by the American side.”

Zelensky also called an official American alignment with Russia a grave error, saying Ukraine could not survive such a turn. Kyiv has separately reported limits on the speed of the Starshield satellite service, a military-grade version of Starlink provided by Elon Musk's SpaceX. Ukraine said the speed limit made it almost impossible to intercept Russia's upgraded jet-powered long-range drones. Musk said any restrictions were the responsibility of the US government, and the White House rebuked that position. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called Zelensky "very reckless" in an NBC interview on Sunday, while Marco Rubio said Ukraine is currently blocked from Starshield.

Envoys, Florida talks and the Kremlin's reply

Zelensky said on X on Sunday, 18 October, that he had spoken with the American president's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and that a lot depends on the US position. He said Ukraine is in virtually nonstop communication with its US counterparts, with the focus on the results of talks in Florida and the next steps. He said the war must be brought to an end and hoped talks with Washington could take place this week. Witkoff and Kushner had told the Ukrainian delegation in Florida a week earlier that Trump's diesel deal with Putin should push the Kremlin to make concessions. The Kremlin said no concessions would be made and that Russia does not limit its claims in Ukraine to Donbas.