Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that while Ukraine is willing to halt attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure, Moscow has continued to strike his country's energy sites despite US President Donald Trump's announcement that the warring countries had agreed to cease such attacks.
Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum in Poland, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had been “horribly surprised” that Moscow struck a power plant in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, as well as a gas production facility and a civilian gas station hours after Trump announced the purported “energy ceasefire” in the 4 1/2-year-old war.
Later on Monday, during an interview on Fox News Channel's “America's Newsroom,” Zelenskyy said his government had refrained from striking Russian energy sites since Trump's announcement Sunday, and was ready to honour an energy ceasefire as “a good first step” toward closing the war.
But, he said, "I'm not sure that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is ready."
“Even after yesterday's messages from (Trump) ... Putin attacked our gas infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said. “When we speak about an energy ceasefire, it means only one thing: that they don't attack our energy infrastructure and we don't respond to their energy infrastructure.”
Trump's brief social media post Sunday offered few details but said the energy ceasefire took effect immediately, adding: “Do not break it!” On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn't say whether Russia had agreed to such a ceasefire, saying only: “Contacts are ongoing." - AP
