Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the U.S.-brokered “energy ceasefire” but warned on Monday that Russia should do the same.
President Zelenskyy said in a livestreamed speech Monday morning that if Russia does not agree to the energy ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump on Sunday, Ukraine will also comply.
“If the United States needs it, we are ready to sign it to make sure that these guarantees are reliable. It is important that we all look at this situation with the same eyes,” he said, claiming that Russia had already violated the energy ceasefire.
“All through this morning, more and more Russian jet-powered Shahids continue to enter the skies over Kiev and other Ukrainian cities. We have shot down many of them, but it is clear that if we do not, there will be even more damage to our energy infrastructure,” he said.
“For now, this is President Putin’s answer to President Trump.”
This came after President Zelenskyy on Sunday lamented continued Russian drone attacks on energy targets in Ukraine, including an attack on a power plant in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border.
Overnight, Russia attacked Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz’s gas production infrastructure in the Kharkiv region, the company announced. It added that no one was injured in the jet-powered drone attack that caused the fire at the facility.
“Critical equipment was damaged in the attack,” Sergiy Fedorenko, Naftogaz’s acting chief executive, said in a statement.
Early Sunday morning, President Trump announced an “energy ceasefire” to reduce fuel costs ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
“Effective immediately, there is an energy ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Both sides have agreed. Do not break it!” President Trump wrote on social media on Sunday.
The ceasefire has proven fragile many times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. President Trump has made several attempts to broker an end to the war, but so far none have been successful.
“We’ve been here a number of times over the last four-and-a-half years, so I don’t think we should get our hopes too high,” Neil Atkinson, the IEA’s former oil chief, told the Squawk Box Europe program on Monday.
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“The reality is that very little is being said,” said Atkinson, who is also a visiting fellow at the National Energy Analysis Center. “The agreements that have been reached are not really moving the market much.”
Trump said Russia will supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel immediately, followed by 500,000 tons in November and another 4 million tons thereafter depending on conditions at Russian refineries.
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Karas, welcomed the energy ceasefire but said “this is not the time to ease pressure on Russia.”
“The suspension of sanctions on Russian diesel will give Russia more revenue to wage its war,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
EU foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Luxembourg on Monday morning to discuss issues including the Russia-Ukraine war. Karas said ahead of the meeting that the EU will adopt a new list of nearly 1,600 sanctions targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex, making it the largest expansion of the list since the start of the war.
Oil prices turned positive after Zelenskiy’s comments on Monday, after falling about 1.5% in early trading.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, Brent crude oil futures for December delivery were up 0.69% at $105.44 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate futures for November delivery were up 0.54% at $92.35 a barrel.
