US warns Kyiv that strikes on Russia jeopardise intelligence-sharing

US officials stepped up pressure on Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil refineries and threatened to cut off vital intelligence sharing as Donald Trump announced a deal with Moscow to release diesel on to the world market.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s negotiating team met Trump’s representatives for nearly eight hours on Friday in Miami, where they were meant to discuss ways to convince Russia to end its war.

But the meeting was derailed when the Ukrainian team was blindsided by Trump’s announcement that he had cut a deal with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to release diesel, according to three people with direct knowledge of the talks.

During the meeting, Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner raised the possibility that intelligence sharing could be cut off if Kyiv did not heed Washington’s warning to halt the strikes, according to people familiar with the matter.

“It was a firm request from POTUS,” one of the Ukrainians involved in the talks told the FT, referring to Trump.

Ukraine uses US intelligence to carry out the attacks in a bid to choke off a vital source of revenue for Moscow’s war economy.

A senior Ukrainian official said after Trump’s announcement that Kyiv would continue. “We will burn [Russian] refineries,” the official said. Hours later, Ukrainian forces struck the Yug Rusi oil terminal in Rostov-on-Don, according to Russian authorities.

That official added that the Ukrainian team was cutting its trip short instead of holding a second round of talks on Saturday.

Witkoff said in a post on X that the Miami talks had been “productive” and helped identify areas the teams could further explore. He said the sides agreed to continue their diplomatic efforts.

Trump has repeatedly pressed Zelenskyy to halt the long-range drone strikes because of the impact on the global diesel market and its spillover to US consumers. The US president and his envoys have grown increasingly frustrated that Ukraine has been ignoring their pleas.

One person familiar with the talks said the US relationship with Ukraine had been improving but Kyiv’s resistance to stopping the strikes had left a bad taste in Trump’s mouth. Despite the tensions, the negotiators in Miami had worked on a peace proposal that could be sent to Russia before the winter, the person said.

In Friday’s meeting, Witkoff and Kushner informed their Ukrainian counterparts that the US was poised to lift sanctions on Russian diesel and that Moscow intended to lift its export ban, according to another person familiar with the discussions.

Ukrainian officials viewed the request for Kyiv to unilaterally halt strikes without pressing Moscow to do the same as unfair and relayed this message to the US side, according to other people familiar with the discussions. A senior Ukrainian official said the move had “ruin[ed] the trust completely” between the two sides. 

The developments sparked anger in Ukraine, where Russian missile and drone strikes have killed more than 80 people since Wednesday. A glide-bomb attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday killed at least 17 civilians, including three children, Ukrainian authorities said.

On Saturday afternoon, Russian ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones attacked Kyiv. Sirens blared as explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital and air defences shot down at least one drone over a densely populated neighbourhood. 

“What allowing Russia to sell oil products means was heard most clearly in Kyiv just now,” Zelenskyy said after the attack. “Russia’s choice is war. And they will be ready to end it only when they feel that their ability to drag the war out is diminishing.”

He added that “every additional billion dollars [Russia] can earn from exports will be spent on nothing but sourcing and importing critical components and equipment to manufacture weapons, upgrading [attack drones], producing missiles and recruiting even more mercenaries”.

The “signals Russia received” from Trump’s deal had suggested to Putin that Moscow “could simply keep attacking” and what was needed were “strong signals” from the US side that it could not do so, Zelenskyy said.

“President Trump’s decision seriously undermines [the] reputation of the US and his credibility as a president, because this decision might lead to strengthening [the] Russian war machine,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

He said Putin was “trying to make Trump complicit” in his war against Ukraine and that the “diesel deal is a dangerous step in this direction”.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, said: “Suspending sanctions on Russian diesel provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war . . . This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t.”

A year ago, Trump encouraged Ukraine to hit Russian refineries harder as part of a co-ordinated effort to weaken Putin’s economy and force him to the negotiating table. At the time, he said he wanted Kyiv to “make them [Russians] feel the pain” and compel the Kremlin to negotiate, according two people briefed on the call.

The Trump administration has suspended intelligence sharing with Kyiv in the past and on numerous occasions threatened to do so again if Zelenskyy did not fall in line with Washington’s positions, according to Ukrainian and western officials.

In March last year, Washington halted intelligence co-operation with Kyiv for eight days after a heated Oval Office clash between Trump and Zelenskyy.

That November, Zelenskyy said he was facing an ultimatum from Trump to agree to his Moscow-friendly peace terms or else lose US support for the war effort.

Trump threatened to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine in April to pressure European allies to join a “coalition of the willing” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to people briefed on the discussions.