Russia launched an attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, leaving at least 600,000 people without power in the Kiev and Kharkov regions, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.
“There is significant damage to facilities and equipment in 26 facilities of our country’s power system and 4 facilities in the oil and gas sector,” President Zelenskiy said in a post on X.
He highlighted targeted ballistic missile attacks on energy infrastructure and said Zelenskiy should have been included in the “energy ceasefire” announced by President Donald Trump on Sunday.
“This attack was completely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale. Never before has Russia shown such blatant contempt for the United States,” President Zelensky said.
The attack came after Ukraine’s president on Monday accused Russia of violating President Trump’s proposal for enemy countries to stop attacking each other’s energy facilities in a bid to lower oil and diesel prices.
Both Russian and Ukrainian authorities initially denied knowledge of the energy ceasefire agreement. Ukraine has since welcomed such an agreement, but Russian officials said talks were continuing without confirming whether an agreement had been reached.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday: “Regarding the status of this agreement, we can refer to the reaction of President Zelensky. When asked the same question, President Zelensky said that he had not heard of such an agreement, welcomed clarification and was ready for a ceasefire.”
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