By Daniel Flynn and Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, Oct 12 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of violating the energy ceasefire announced by Donald Trump after a strike on a thermal power plant in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and urged the United States to ensure Moscow sticks to any agreement.
Under pressure over high energy prices ahead of US midterm elections next month, President Trump had blindsided Kyiv and its European allies by announcing that Kyiv and Moscow had agreed an energy ceasefire over the weekend. He had also unveiled a deal to buy diesel from Russia, angering Ukraine.
As its officials voiced scepticism over the ceasefire, the European Union urged the US to keep pressure on Moscow and approved new sanctions targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex.
Zelenskiy said he was still awaiting details of the deal, with Kyiv wary of any agreement that it feels could hand Russia an advantage by forcing Ukraine unilaterally to halt attacks on Russian refineries.
“There were Russian violations of the energy ceasefire announced by President Trump,” Zelenskiy told a conference in Warsaw via video link.
“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,” said Zelenskiy, who said he had learned about the ceasefire deal from the media.
“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.”
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had carried out no attacks on Russian refineries overnight but he made clear that if Russia wanted Kyiv to suspend these attacks it must stop hitting Ukraine’s energy system and critical infrastructure.
Russia has yet to comment.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she would prefer a 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.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had not seen any signs in the last 48 hours of Russia respecting any form of energy ceasefire deal.
A person familiar with the situation said the US had threatened to cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine and weapons under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) system to pressure Kyiv. Under Trump, the United States has already largely stopped supplying Ukraine with weapons but lets European countries buy them on Kyiv’s behalf under the PURL.
Germany’s Minister for Europe Gunther Krichbaum said he expected the US to remain a reliable partner.
UKRAINIANS SCEPTICAL OF CEASEFIRE ANNOUNCEMENT
Russian attacks killed six people in two different cities on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. As rescue teams picked through the wreckage of attacks in Kharkiv, witness Nataliia Minka said she had just made it to a shelter when a missile struck nearby.
“Ten minutes had passed since they promised they wouldn’t target energy facilities, and there have already been five strikes. My child and I saw a missile hit Thermal Power Plant No. 5 and watched it burn there. It’s horrific,” 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.”
At least 12 people were also wounded in several Russian attacks on Kharkiv on Monday morning, mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
Residents in Kyiv were sceptical that any promise of an energy ceasefire would hold.
“I take a very critical view of any information,” said Vira, a 37-year-old civil servant. During negotiations, “a decision is sometimes reached but, unfortunately, the Russian aggressor often fails to comply with it; so there’s no point in believing that we’ll be saved tomorrow and that some sort of peace will be granted.”
To maintain pressure on Moscow, European Union ministers adopted nearly 1,600 new sanctions listings targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex, Kallas said.
“More than half are connected to the production chain for ballistic missiles,” she said in a post on X.
Trump wants Ukraine to halt its attacks on Russian oil refineries, blaming those strikes for a rise in diesel prices that is hurting his Republican Party ahead of US midterm elections.
In a dramatic deterioration in relations, Trump on Saturday warned Zelenskiy that he had “better damn well stop” attacking Russian refineries, and urged Ukrainians to replace their leader at new elections.
Elections have been suspended in Ukraine since the 2022 Russian invasion. Zelenskiy said he would call a vote if Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a 60-day ceasefire and that it was “up to Ukrainians” to choose their leader.
Trump, whose war in Iran has been widely blamed for hiking global fuel prices, had previously announced an energy ceasefire in Ukraine in mid-September, although neither side ever confirmed that such an agreement had been reached.
Zelenskiy has rejected that he was to blame for energy price rises, adding that “everybody in the world” knew that the war in the Middle East was a bigger factor.
(Daniel Flynn, Pavel Polityuk, Inti Landauro, Lili Bayer, Karol Badohal, Pawel FlorkiewiczWriting by Matthias WilliamsEditing by Peter Graff)
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