Ukraine repels Russian forces as US support wavers, energy strikes escalate

The United States’s relationship with Ukraine came under extraordinary strain during the past week, as US President Donald Trump lifted some oil sanctions against Russia and was feared to have restricted Ukraine’s access to US intelligence and satellite services, hobbling its defences.“It is a pity we are losing … a strong partner,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told journalist Piers Morgan, speaking of the US.“It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side,” he said. “This is not [the] right side of history.”Trump on October 9 invited Russia to sell 1.8 million tonnes of diesel to the global market by the end of the year, to help bring down transport prices.That effectively reversed the Lindsey Graham Act, which Trump had signed into law days earlier. The law gave him the ability to punish countries buying Russian oil with secondary sanctions.Ukraine’s partners did not share intelligence that five ballistic missiles were headed towards Kyiv on October 13, Zelenskyy said, without naming the US. Those missiles struck Kyiv’s Thermal Power Plant number 4, one of the capital’s biggest, resulting in power outages.Russia then pounded Ukraine’s electricity infr...