Kyiv: Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that US President Donald Trump’s decision to block Russia sanctions only “rewards” Russia’s Vladimir Putin and warned Moscow was trying to deprive “millions” of Ukrainians of heat and electricity before winter.
Amid a clash with the Ukrainian wartime leader, Trump signed an executive order that waived sweeping US sanctions targeting Russia’s energy revenues.
The decision came despite Russia increasing strikes on Ukraine — especially its capital, Kyiv — in the fifth year of its offensive, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.
The Lindsey Graham Act — named after the deceased US senator who sponsored the bill — targeted Russia’s energy and defense sectors, as well as Putin and the so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers used by Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions.
Zelensky said the decision came the same day as Russia attacked 15 critical power generation facilities across Ukraine in “one of the largest” attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid.
“It is important that everyone in America also sees what is really happening,” he said on social media.
The Lindsey Graham Act, he said, was “supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to bring this war to an end” adding that the act “could have helped enormously — and still can!.”
“A US sanctions blackout, easing pressure on the aggressor, financial rewards for Putin — all of this only encourages him to keep attacking,” he warned.
The Ukrainian leader said Russia wanted to cause a “blackout” in Ukraine ahead of winter: “Russia is trying to leave millions of our people without electricity and heating.”
He called on allies to keep up pressure on Moscow to “stop this.”
Last winter saw hundreds of thousands in Ukraine consistently without heat and electricity in freezing temperatures.
A day after Trump waived the sanctions, causing Europe and Kyiv to worry which side of the war the White House is on, Ukraine said at least two people were killed in Russian air strikes.
Officials said one person was killed in the southern city of Kherson in an attack that also wounded 22 people, including two children, and that another was killed in the northeastern city of Sumy.
Russia hails Trump move as ‘historic’
The Kremlin and Putin have not yet reacted to Trump, but several Russian officials celebrated the move as a win.
“The Trump administration’s suspension of the Graham Act is an important and truly historic moment,” Kirill Dmitriev, a Putin envoy, said on social media.
Dmitriev said the act would have caused “serious damage first and foremost to the US economy and global markets.”
Trump’s waiver comes after he struck a deal with Putin to ease existing sanctions on Russia in exchange for Moscow releasing large amounts of diesel onto global markets.
He announced the executive order Friday, shortly after Putin appeared in military uniform and said Moscow aims to capture the rest of east Ukraine.
US-led talks to end the war in Ukraine have not led to a breakthrough. Both Putin and Zelensky have frustrated Trump in the past with a lack of progress in halting the grinding war.
Zelensky had rallied his allies Friday on a visit to Brussels for a European Union summit, urging them to keep financing Ukraine’s fight and insisting he was standing up for his country amid the row with Trump.
Putin vows more
Ukraine has been struggling to shoot down Russian missiles and has been left scrambling to boost defenses ahead of winter.
Russia controls large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine and Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine by force.
“On the whole I see a positive trend in the operations of the troop groupings,” Putin told army leaders Friday, dressed in military attire.
“Undoubtedly, one of the main objectives remains the liberation of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” he added, using the Kremlin’s name for the eastern Donetsk region.
European leaders put on a show of unity with Zelensky Friday as he grappled with Trump.
“This is no time to withdraw the support to Ukraine. This is no time to relieve Russia’s sanctions,” said European Council chief Antonio Costa.
“Now it is time to increase our support, to increase our pressure.”