Hours after President Donald Trump announced an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to avoid attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine, Russia conducted an attack on said infrastructure. The attack was reciprocated by a Ukrainian attack on Russian energy facilities shortly after.
Trump touted the limited ceasefire agreement — technically a retreat from his previous aim to have a full 30-day ceasefire between the two countries — in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
“We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump wrote.
But shortly after that statement was issued, Russia launched drone attacks against a number of cities in Ukraine. The attacks targeted railways, health facilities and electric infrastructure used by civilians.
Notably, countries around the world have a baseline agreement not to attack energy-related infrastructure, as attacks on infrastructure used by civilians are typically (though not always) considered war crimes. If a structure is considered an important strategic military target, international war crime laws sometimes do not apply. However, after examining similar Russian attacks against Ukraine at the start of the war three years ago, the International Criminal Court (ICC) determined that those attacks did violate international law, and issued arrest warrants for Russian military officials over “missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attacks in a statement to reporters in Helsinki, stating:
Even this night after Putin’s talk with President Trump, when Putin allegedly said he had given the order to stop strikes on the Ukrainian energy targets, 150 drones hit energy infrastructure, transport, unfortunately two hospitals. Putin’s words are very different from reality.
Zelenskyy also reiterated a point he made during a contentious meeting with Trump in the White House last month: that assurances from Putin and the U.S. had to be made before Ukraine could agree to any ceasefire agreement.
“This confirms that we must continue to pressure Russia for the sake of peace. Only a real halt to Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure can signal a genuine desire to end this war and bring peace closer,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine similarly attacked energy facilities in Russia after the agreement between Trump and Putin was made, Russian officials said on Wednesday.
Later on Wednesday, Ukraine indicated that it would agree to stop attacks on energy structures. It’s unclear when that agreement, if it holds, would start, but negotiators from both sides said they would meet in Saudi Arabia soon to discuss more specifics.
Despite Russia violating the terms of its agreement with Trump almost immediately, Trump has frequently painted himself as a master negotiator capable of ending the war between the two countries. During the 2024 presidential campaign, for example, he vowed numerous times that he could end the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office.
But just this past weekend, Trump stepped back from that pledge, attempting to temper the public’s expectations. He excused the dismissal of his pledge by claiming that he was “being a little bit sarcastic” when he made the promise to U.S. voters on the campaign trail.
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