WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a truce covering energy targets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately pushed back, saying he was hearing about it for the first time, and Russia struck a Ukrainian power plant. Trump appears to be straining to calm diesel prices ahead of the midterm elections, but neither Moscow nor Kyiv is playing along.
"Both sides have agreed," Trump wrote on Truth Social on the 11th, saying the energy truce took effect immediately and warning the parties not to violate it. A White House official told Axios that the energy truce refers to a potential agreement under which both sides would stop attacking refining facilities, and that Trump expects Zelensky to abide by it. The official added that if attacks on refining facilities stop, an agreement to halt strikes on power plants and the electricity grid could follow.
Critics already call the arrangement lopsided. A Ukrainian official told Axios that Ukraine has only one refining facility and that it is not even fully operational. Russia, by contrast, has an extensive network of refineries. Ukraine wants Russia to stop attacking its power plants and electricity grid, but the White House has put a halt to refinery strikes forward as the first step toward a truce.
After Trump's remarks, statements and actions from Ukraine and Russia pointed in a different direction. Zelensky told Axios he was hearing about the energy truce for the first time, but said Ukraine would agree to it if Russia did.
ABC News reported that Russia attacked a Ukrainian power plant after Trump's message. The target was the CHP-5 thermal power plant in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, which was hit at least twice and caught fire.
On X, formerly Twitter, Zelensky said Ukrainian skies had been filled with Russian Shahed drones all day and that attacks on the country's energy infrastructure had continued, including a strike on a power plant in Kharkiv that evening. Ukraine wants peace, he said, and the question is whether Russia does too. He added that Kyiv is waiting for clear details on the talks between the United States and Russia and expects Russian President Vladimir Putin to follow through on what Trump described.
The rift between Washington and Kyiv appears to be widening. The Financial Times, citing multiple European sources, reported that the United States had told European governments it could halt weapons sales to Ukraine through NATO and suspend intelligence sharing if Ukraine continues to strike Russian refineries.
