Kyiv, Oct 12 (AP): Ukrainian officials said Monday that Russia has continued to strike Ukraine’s energy facilities even after US President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the warring countries had agreed on an “energy ceasefire” in the 4 1/2-year-old war.
A Monday statement from the Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine said Russian forces had attacked an energy facility on the outskirts of the city.
That came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that while he “welcomed” Trump’s announcement, Russia was still hitting energy infrastructure in the capital Kyiv and in Kharkiv.
Trump’s brief social media post on Sunday announcing the purported agreement to mutually cease attacks on energy sites said only that the ceasefire took effect immediately, adding: “Do not break it!”
Trump had also claimed in a social media post on Sept. 14 that both countries had agreed “not to hit” each other’s energy infrastructure, but offered no details on that proposal either and nothing came of the purported agreement.
Russia has used attacks on energy facilities in order to deny Ukrainian civilians power, heat and running water during the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponising winter”.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has levelled strikes against Russian energy sites like oil refineries, sometimes deep within Russian territory. That’s prompted Trump to blame Zelenskyy for high diesel prices in the US only weeks before its midterm elections.
Moscow did not immediately comment on the purported deal. Zelenskyy said Sunday that while his country “welcomed” the announcement by Trump as “good news for everyone,” Russia was still hitting energy infrastructure in Kyiv and in Kharkiv.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready to comply with Trump’s requests to stop striking Russian refineries if Moscow halted attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, and he asked Trump to press the Kremlin to agree.
The European Union’s top diplomat on Monday welcomed the prospect of a pause in energy strikes in Ukraine, particularly as winter approaches, but said she sees no sign that Russia would be willing to respect it.
“We haven’t yet seen that also Russia will stick to it,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
“Personally, I would also welcome that the ceasefire would include people not being killed, not only energy.”
Kallas also emphasised the need for European countries to continue supporting Ukraine’s efforts to defend against Moscow’s full-scale invasion, even as Trump struck a deal on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the US to purchase diesel from Moscow in an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of US midterm elections.
Ukrainian and European officials reacted to the diesel deal with dismay, saying it will help pay for Russia’s war effort.
On Monday, several EU foreign ministers said the diesel deal is unlikely to bring energy prices down, and appears aimed at helping Republicans win the midterm elections.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told reporters in Luxembourg that he doesn’t believe the deal “is actually going to change anything” in terms of fuel prices, and that it is “much more connected to the domestic situation in the US”.
Asked about Trump’s deal with Putin, Kallas said that only pressure on Russia will be able to bring an end to the fighting.
“Russia has started this war,” she told reporters. “We should put the pressure on Russia so that they will stop, because if they stop, Ukrainians also don’t have to take any steps to defend their country.”
Kallas also pushed back on Trump’s comments on Saturday that it was time for Ukraine to get a new president and that Zelenskyy has not done enough to end the war.
The EU’s top diplomat said that now is not the time to hold elections in Ukraine, at least not without a ceasefire.
“If the pressure is put on Russia so that they will stop this war, I’m sure that Ukraine will have elections,” she said.
A Russian drone attack on the village of Pisochyn in the Kharkiv district on Sunday evening killed three people and injured nine others, including children, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
Investigators said the attack occurred at approximately 7:25 pm, striking a densely populated area near apartment buildings and grocery stores and sparking a fire.
Ukrainian air defence forces shot down or suppressed 89 of 121 Russian drones overnight Monday, Ukraine’s Air Force said in a Telegram post.
The attack involved one Kh-59 guided air-to-surface missile and 121 drones, including 76 jet-powered Shahed-type drones, the statement said.
Strikes were recorded at 15 locations in Ukraine, while debris from downed drones fell at four locations.
The Russian Defence Ministry on Monday said its air defences overnight intercepted 151 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions as well as the illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Black Sea.
In a separate statement, the ministry said its forces overnight carried out drone strikes on Ukraine’s unspecified port infrastructure and a bulk carrier heading to Ukraine’s port city of Odesa with military cargo on board.
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