Ukraine held off Russian energy strikes after Trump's ceasefire announcement, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine refrained from striking Russian energy facilities overnight following US President Donald Trump's announcement of an energy ceasefire, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Oct. 12, while Russia continued attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
“We did not attack any energy facilities on Russian territory last night because President Trump said there would be an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Fox News.
“We did not attack while Russia was striking our gas stations, energy infrastructure and other facilities,” he added.
Zelenskyy described the continued Russian strikes as Moscow's response to Trump's announcement.
“I think that was Putin's response to President Trump,” he said. “The signals from Russia were very clear: they know nothing about an energy ceasefire.”
Trump announced on Oct. 11 that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to halt energy-related strikes. Zelenskyy subsequently said the announcement came as news to Kyiv, but that Ukraine was prepared to observe a mutual ceasefire if Russia did the same.
The Ukrainian president has emphasized that any such agreement must cover energy infrastructure broadly, rather than only oil refineries, as Ukraine has just one heavily damaged refinery while Russia operates numerous facilities.
The developments come amid reports by the Financial Times and the Kyiv Independent that US officials threatened to suspend intelligence sharing and NATO-funded weapons deliveries unless Ukraine stopped striking Russian oil refineries. A NATO official told Suspilne on Oct. 12 that weapons deliveries through the PURL initiative were still continuing at that time.
No formal agreement on an energy ceasefire has been confirmed by both Kyiv and Moscow.
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