Zelenskyy claims Puttin ignores Trump’s energy ceasefire call as Russia continues energy strikes
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Abdullateef Fowewe
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of ignoring a purported “energy ceasefire” announced by United States President Donald Trump, saying Moscow’s drone attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure continued unabated.
Speaking via video link at the Warsaw Security Forum, Zelenskyy posted excerpts of his remarks on X.
“It is clear that Putin does not read Truth Social, and his ‘shahed’ drones follow a different set of instructions,” he said.
Ukraine, he added, had “immediately supported the idea of an energy ceasefire, as we did more than once for months when we ourselves put forward this idea. We agreed to an energy ceasefire.”
He stressed the imbalance between the two sides’ energy vulnerabilities.
“We do not have major oil reserves, large oil export capacity, or dozens of oil refineries. In Ukraine, we have just one oil refinery, and it was badly damaged by Russian strikes long ago. For us, the key issue is electricity, we have power cuts every single day,” he said.
Zelenskyy argued that any halt to Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities must be reciprocal, “If Russia wants us to stop our long-range strikes against its oil refineries and oil exports, then Russia must stop its strikes against our energy system and critical infrastructure. This is only fair.”
In a follow-up post from the same speech, he noted that while Russian oil refineries were not hit overnight, a Russian jet-powered Shahed struck a Ukrainian gas-production facility at midnight, with further attacks reported on a gas station and continued drone activity over Kyiv and other cities.
“So there were Russian violations of the energy ceasefire announced by President Trump,” he said.
Ukraine is “ready to respect an energy ceasefire if Russia is ready to do the same — we agree if they agree.”
On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social that an “ENERGY CEASEFIRE” between Russia and Ukraine was “effective immediately” and that “both parties have agreed.”
Ukrainian officials said the announcement came as a surprise and that they first learned of it through media reports.
Kyiv has repeatedly expressed willingness for mutual restraints on energy attacks, while arguing that Russian strikes on Ukraine’s power grid pose an existential threat to civilian life, especially ahead of winter.
Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy sites have continued, according to Ukrainian authorities, including attacks reported after Trump’s announcement.
The exchange highlights ongoing friction over how to de-escalate the energy dimension of the war, now in its fifth year, amid broader U.S. diplomatic efforts and differing priorities between Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow.
