KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that while Ukraine is willing to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, Moscow has continued to strike his country’s energy sites despite US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the warring countries had agreed to cease such attacks.
Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum in Poland, Zelensky said Ukraine had been “horribly surprised” that Moscow struck a power plant in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, as well as a gas production facility and a civilian gas station hours after Trump announced the purported “energy ceasefire” in the 4 1/2-year-old war.
Later on Monday, during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Zelenksyy said his government had refrained from striking Russian energy sites since Trump’s announcement Sunday, and was ready to honor an energy ceasefire as “a good first step” toward closing the war.
But, he said, “I’m not sure that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is ready.”
“Even after yesterday’s messages from (Trump) ... Putin attacked our gas infrastructure,” Zelensky said. “When we speak about energy ceasefire, it means only one thing: that they don’t attack our energy infrastructure and we don’t respond on their energy infrastructure.”
Trump’s brief social media post Sunday offered few details but said the energy ceasefire took effect immediately, adding: “Do not break it!” On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t say whether Russia had agreed to such a ceasefire, saying only: “Contacts are ongoing.”
Energy strikes have caused pain for both Ukraine and Russia
Trump previously announced a similar agreement on ceasing energy strikes that did not come to fruition. In a social media post on Sept. 14, he said both countries had agreed “not to hit” each other’s energy infrastructure, but offered no details on that proposal either.
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 “weaponizing winter,” and fear Russia could ramp up such attacks as cold weather approaches.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has launched strikes against Russian energy sites like oil refineries, sometimes deep within Russian territory. That’s prompted Trump to blame Zelensky for record US diesel prices — rather than the US-led war in Iran — and to strike a deal with Putin on Friday to import diesel from Russia in an attempt to bring fuel prices down ahead of US midterm elections.
Speaking on Fox News on Monday, Zelensky pushed back on Trump’s claims that Ukrainian strikes in Russia were driving up fuel prices, saying: “Everybody understands that the prices on diesel (don’t) depend on our attacks on diesel in Russia. Everybody understands that it depends on the blocking (of the) Strait of Hormuz.”
EU foreign policy chief skeptical of energy ceasefire
The European Union’s top diplomat on Monday welcomed the prospect of a pause in energy strikes on Ukraine, but said she sees no sign that Russia is willing to respect it.
“We haven’t yet seen that ... 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.”
Trump’s deal with Putin to purchase diesel from Russia dismayed officials in the US, Ukraine and around Europe. A bipartisan group of six US senators, including four Republicans, called on the Trump administration on Sunday to “immediately reverse course” on the deal, saying the US should “not provide Putin with a financial lifeline” while Russia is killing Ukrainian civilians.
Kallas also pushed back on Trump’s comments on Saturday that it was time for Ukraine to get a new president and that Zelensky has not done enough to end the war. She said that now is not the time to hold elections in Ukraine, at least not without a ceasefire.
On Monday, Zelensky said holding elections in Ukraine was impossible during war time, especially with new Russian tactics involving attacks day and night. He added, however, that he would be ready to work toward doing so if Ukraine secured a full ceasefire lasting at least 60 days.
In response, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said in a statement that in case of a Ukrainian election, Putin would be ready to halt strikes on Ukraine “specifically on election day,” and that Kyiv only wanted a 60-day ceasefire “to gather their strength, heal their wounds, and continue the war.”
Russian attacks kill 4 and injure others, including children
One woman died and at least five other people were injured after a Russian drone hit a 25-story residential building in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district Monday night, the city’s military administration said. Earlier in the day, falling debris from Russian attacks sparked a fire in a private residential building in the same area and at least two people were injured in daytime strikes.
Debris also fell in an open area near private residential buildings in the Solomianskyi district, and on a warehouse building in the Darnytskyi district, with emergency services dispatched to the scene.
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 struck a densely populated area near apartment buildings and grocery stores and sparked a fire.
Ukrainian air defense 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 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 Defense Ministry on Monday said its air defenses 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 port infrastructure and a bulk carrier heading to Ukraine’s port city of Odesa with military cargo on board.