By Daniel Flynn and Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Waves of Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight and into Monday killed several people and wounded dozens, including attacks on energy facilities which Kyiv called a violation of a ceasefire on such targets announced by Donald Trump.
Under pressure over high energy prices ahead of US midterm elections next month, US President Trump blindsided Kyiv and its European allies by declaring that Kyiv and Moscow had agreed not to hit each other’s energy systems.
Trump has also unveiled a deal to buy diesel from Russia, and called on Ukrainians to replace their wartime leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in elections.
Ukraine’s European allies voiced scepticism of any such energy ceasefire and urged the US to keep pressure on Moscow, while the EU approved its own largest set of sanctions since the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Zelenskiy, who has said he learned of Trump’s purported energy ceasefire only from the media, said a Russian jet-powered drone had hit a gas production facility in Ukraine at midnight, and a petrol station had been struck by several drones.
“There were Russian violations of the energy ceasefire announced by President Trump,” Zelenskiy told a conference in Warsaw via video link.
“This energy ceasefire, it can work, and it can become a major step toward ending the war if the Americans truly step in now and make sure Russians respect it,” he said. “We are waiting for the details of the conditions between the Americans and Russians, and we are waiting to see one specific step the Americans are ready to take.”
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had carried out no attacks on Russian refineries overnight but he made clear that if Russia wanted Kyiv to suspend them it must stop hitting Ukraine’s energy system. He also said elections, suspended during wartime, could be held if Moscow agreed to a full ceasefire for 60 days.
Russia, for its part, said talks were ongoing about a possible energy ceasefire, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said further information would be revealed in due course. But he also rejected Zelenskiy’s proposal for a 60-day truce.
“In the Kremlin, both President (Vladimir) Putin and officials at other levels have repeatedly stated that we do not want a ceasefire,” said Peskov. “We want long-term peace and are prepared to do everything possible to achieve it.”
BODY AMONG WRECKAGE
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, rescue workers picked through wreckage of shattered buildings. The body of a dead civilian in jeans and white sneakers lay beneath debris, lit up by floodlights in the nighttime dark.
Nataliia Minka said she had just made it to a shelter when a missile struck nearby. She and her child had seen what they believed to be a missile hitting a nearby power station.
“Ten minutes had passed since they promised they wouldn’t target energy facilities,” she said.
“It’s so hard to describe how a child was lying there, already covered up, and the father was running around her, crying and screaming,” she added. “It’s so terrifying — it’s impossible to get through something like this.”
After nighttime attacks killed at least three people in the city, further strikes took place in the morning, hitting residential buildings and wounding at least 22 more people, municipal officials said. At least three other people were reported killed on Sunday in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
Trump’s announcement of an energy ceasefire appeared similar to one he announced a month ago, which neither side ever confirmed.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she would prefer a wider ceasefire “which includes people not being killed,” and that it was not clear whether Russia would stick to it.
“We would call the US to get the sanctions in place so that we could actually finish the war,” she said at a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Moscow “will only negotiate seriously under pressure, which is why we are sticking to our sanctions against Russia.
“Following Moscow’s ruthless attacks on Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure, we must actually tighten them further.”
TRUMP GROWS IMPATIENT
In recent months, Ukraine has increasingly been targeting Russian oil refineries and logistics hubs, its answer to four-and-a-half years of relentless Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities, including a persistent campaign to knock out Ukrainian heat and power particularly in the winter.
Trump has become increasingly impatient, blaming Kyiv’s attacks on Russian refineries for the surge of costs for fuel, especially diesel, to record prices since he launched his military campaign against Iran. On Saturday he said Zelenskiy had “better damn well stop” attacking Russian refineries.
A person familiar with the situation said the US had threatened to cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine and supplies of weapons, which Washington no longer provides to Kyiv but allows European countries to buy on its behalf.
(Daniel Flynn, Pavel Polityuk, Inti Landauro, Lili Bayer, Karol Badohal, Pawel FlorkiewiczWriting by Matthias WilliamsEditing by Peter Graff)
Comments