Kyiv says Russia hit six Ukraine energy targets
Daniel Flynn and Pavel Polityuk |
Russia has hit at least six energy targets during deadly airstrikes across Ukraine, showing it had no interest in an energy ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump.
Under pressure over high energy prices ahead of US midterm elections in November, Trump blindsided Kyiv and its European allies over the weekend by declaring that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to hit each other’s energy systems.
“It is increasingly evident that Russia is unwilling to accept an energy ceasefire proposed by the United States and intends to continue its terrorist air attacks against our people and communities,” Zelenskiy said on X on Monday.
“This is what happens when Russia sees the prospect of higher revenues for its war machine.”
In earlier comments by video link to a conference in Poland, Zelenskiy identified two of the targets as a gas facility and a petrol station, both hit by Russian drones.
Trump announced the purported energy ceasefire days after unveiling a deal to buy diesel from Russia, which Zelenskiy has criticised as a reversal of years of Western policy aimed at isolating Russia’s economy.
Trump, for his part, has called on Ukrainians to unseat Zelenskiy in an election, an unusually severe exchange in a relationship between the two leaders that has been strained since Trump returned to power in 2025.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s point man for oil, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, said Moscow would be able to return diesel exports to levels above those Trump outlined under the diesel deal.
Trump defended the deal as US lawmakers from both major parties complained that it appeared to violate US law. The president’s envoys told Ukrainian officials last week that the deal sought to draw Russia back to talks on ending the war, three people familiar with the meeting told Reuters.
Trump’s weekend announcement on an energy ceasefire was the second time within a few weeks that Trump had issued such a declaration without confirmation from the two warring sides.
Ukraine’s European allies on Monday voiced scepticism of any such agreement, spoke in support of Kyiv and approved the largest set of EU sanctions since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had carried out no attacks on Russian refineries overnight and was willing to agree an energy ceasefire, but said it was “increasingly clear” Russia would not abide by it.
He also said elections, suspended during wartime, could be held if Moscow agreed to a full ceasefire for 60 days.
In Kyiv, a new Russian strike on a high-rise apartment block killed two people and injured at least nine, while attacks in other regions killed at least six people, officials said.
New strikes also targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city in the northeast.
Overnight attacks killed at least three people in Kharkiv and further strikes in the morning wounded at least 22.
Russia began its latest strike campaign on Ukraine’s grid two weeks ago, already causing daily, hours-long power cuts in Kyiv, affecting the capital’s water and sewage systems and twice bringing its underground trains to an abrupt halt.
with Reuters
Reuters