KYIV — Ukraine’s president said Russia struck power stations, a gas production facility and a petrol station within hours of Donald Trump announcing an “energy ceasefire” — a deal neither Kyiv nor Moscow has publicly confirmed.
Mr Trump declared the arrangement on Sunday morning via Truth Social: the ceasefire took effect immediately, both parties had agreed, and “Do not break it!” — with no detail on scope, duration or verification.
Volodymyr Zelensky said the announcement took him by surprise: it “was news for me,” he told Axios. He said Moscow then struck a power plant in Kharkiv, along with the gas facility and the petrol station. Writing on X, he said Kyiv had held its side: Ukraine had refrained from striking Russian energy facilities since the announcement and was ready to treat the ceasefire as “a good first step.” “Even after yesterday’s messages from (Trump)… Putin attacked our gas infrastructure,” he said.
What Washington is pressing for
The White House has spent the weekend pressing Kyiv to stop striking Russian oil refineries, which Mr Trump has blamed for sending diesel prices soaring ahead of next month’s midterm elections. The Financial Times reported that in Miami on Oct 9, US envoys threatened to cut off US intelligence sharing unless Kyiv halted the strikes. A Ukrainian official gave the same account to Axios; a US official denied it.
According to Axios, the proposal amounts to “refinery for refinery”: each side stops hitting the other’s oil refineries, with power plants and grids possibly to follow. A Ukrainian official called the proposal lopsided, noting Ukraine has only one refinery — the Kremenchuk plant, which has already been damaged.
Mr Zelensky has offered since September to halt strikes on Russian refineries if Moscow stopped hitting Ukraine’s grid — repeated again after the announcement. Kyiv’s position now: Ukraine supports the ceasefire, and Russia should too.
US angle: diesel prices and the midterms
The announcement came two days after the administration eased US sanctions to allow up to 4.8 million tonnes of Russian diesel onto world markets after a call with Mr Putin. The US Treasury issued a licence covering those cargoes until April 7, 2027.
With midterms less than a month away, fuel prices have become a political flashpoint. The episode’s foundations look fragile: a near-identical energy truce announced in mid-September went unacknowledged by either side, and attacks on refineries and power stations continued — even as the president’s other foreign-policy positions shifted with the electoral calendar.
Whether this second declaration survives will be tested in the coming days — including the wider strain the war is placing on humanitarian funding. NewsBroadcasterLive will update this story as it develops.
