KYIV – Russia continued attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Monday, Ukrainian officials said, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement a day earlier that the two sides had agreed to an “energy ceasefire” in the 4 1/2-year-old war.
The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Kharkiv said Monday that Russian forces had struck an energy facility on the northeastern city’s outskirts. The report followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement Sunday that he “welcomed” Trump’s announcement, while warning that Russian attacks were continuing against energy infrastructure in Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Trump announced the purported agreement in a short social media post Sunday, saying the mutual halt to attacks on energy sites had taken effect immediately. “Do not break it!” he wrote, without providing further details.
Trump made a similar claim in a Sept. 14 social media post, saying Russia and Ukraine had agreed “not to hit” each other’s energy infrastructure. He gave no details at the time, and that proposed agreement did not result in any apparent change in the fighting.
Russia has repeatedly targeted energy facilities during the war, cutting off electricity, heat and running water for Ukrainian civilians in an effort to weaken public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukrainian officials have described the tactic as “weaponizing winter.”
Ukraine has also attacked Russian energy targets, including oil refineries, in some cases deep inside Russian territory. Those strikes have led Trump to blame Zelenskyy for high diesel prices in the United States, just weeks before the country’s midterm elections.
Moscow had not immediately commented on the purported agreement. Zelenskyy said Sunday that Trump’s announcement was “good news for everyone,” but reiterated that Russian forces were still striking energy infrastructure in Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was prepared to follow Trump’s request to stop attacking Russian refineries if Moscow ended its strikes on Ukraine’s energy system. He also urged Trump to press the Kremlin to accept the arrangement.
EU foreign policy chief skeptical of energy ceasefire
The European Union’s top diplomat on Monday welcomed the possibility of a pause in attacks on Ukraine’s energy network, especially with winter approaching. However, she said there was no indication that Russia was prepared to honor the arrangement.
“We haven’t yet seen that also Russia will stick to it,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters 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 stressed that European nations must continue helping Ukraine defend itself against Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Her comments came after Trump reached a deal Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the United States to purchase diesel from Moscow in an effort to address high fuel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
Ukrainian and European officials reacted with dismay to the diesel agreement, arguing that it would help finance Russia’s war effort. Several EU foreign ministers said Monday that the deal was unlikely to reduce energy prices and appeared designed to assist Republicans in the midterm elections.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told reporters in Luxembourg that he did not believe the agreement “is actually going to change anything” for fuel prices. Instead, he said, it was “much more connected to the domestic situation in the U.S.”
Asked about Trump’s agreement with Putin, Kallas said ending the war would require continued pressure on Russia.
“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 rejected Trump’s remarks Saturday that Ukraine should choose a new president and that Zelenskyy had not done enough to end the conflict. The EU’s foreign policy chief said elections should not be held in Ukraine while the war continues, at least until a ceasefire is in place.
“If the pressure is put on Russia so that they will stop this war, I’m sure that Ukraine will have elections,” she said.
Russian attack kills 3 and injures others, including children
A Russian drone strike on the village of Pisochyn in the Kharkiv district killed three people and wounded nine others Sunday evening, including children, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
Investigators said the attack occurred at approximately 7:25 p.m., striking a densely populated area near apartment buildings and grocery stores and sparking 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 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 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 unspecified port infrastructure and a bulk carrier heading to Ukraine’s port city of Odesa with military cargo on board.
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Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.
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