President Donald Trump said both nations agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered elections for a broader truce.
United States President Donald Trump announced an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine on Sunday, stating that both countries agreed to immediately stop strikes on energy facilities.
Trump posted the declaration on social media after days of growing friction with Kyiv over Ukrainian attacks against Russian oil installations, Al Jazeera reported. “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed,” Trump wrote, instructing both sides not to break the pact.
Kyiv demands broader truce and offers elections
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not directly confirm Trump’s agreement on Sunday, but pushed for a wider halt to hostilities. “Please tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organise elections,” Zelenskyy told ABC in response to Trump’s recent criticisms.
Earlier on Sunday, Zelenskyy wrote on social media that Ukraine was prepared to halt attacks on Russian refineries only if Moscow stopped striking Ukrainian power networks, adding that any step down in fighting required reciprocal action and reliable guarantees. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin had the power to end attacks on power systems immediately but chose not to do so.
The exchange follows a sharp clash over Ukrainian leadership. Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday that it was time for Ukraine to choose a new president, arguing that Zelenskyy had failed to negotiate peace after Trump criticized him over fuel supplies. In response, Zelenskyy said that choosing the country’s leadership remains a decision for Ukrainians alone, noting that Putin also wanted him removed. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X that foreign criticism only confirmed that Zelenskyy was doing his job well during Ukraine’s fight for independence.
Fuel deal triggers dispute over leadership
The clash over energy infrastructure came after Trump announced an agreement on Friday to buy Russian fuel to lower record American fuel costs, CBS News reported. Under that plan, Washington agreed to buy over 300,000 tons of Russian diesel right away, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons in subsequent shipments. The move temporarily lifted sanctions Washington had imposed following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four and a half years ago.
Trump blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries for driving up diesel prices for American farmers and ranchers before the upcoming November midterm elections. He told reporters on Saturday that he had warned Zelenskyy to avoid hitting Russian refineries because of Moscow’s large role in global supplies, but the Ukrainian leader continued the attacks anyway, according to an Al Jazeera timeline.
Kyiv sharply rejected that assessment. Zelenskyy warned that every extra $1 billion Moscow earns from exports helps purchase weapons components, improve drones, produce missiles and hire mercenary forces. He argued that the American agreement emboldened Moscow, pointing to five Russian glide bombs dropped on apartment buildings in Zaporizhzhia shortly after the sanctions relief was announced.
Strikes hit data centers and residential areas
Even as Trump declared an end to energy strikes, cross-border attacks continued across the region. Ukrainian drones struck an installation owned by Russian internet company Yandex in Vladimir, east of Moscow, on Sunday. The strike shut down the facility and knocked out digital services across dozens of Russian cities as well as parts of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia.
The Vladimir attack marked the third strike on Yandex infrastructure in four days. Ukrainian drones took a Yandex data center offline in Ryazan on Thursday and partly disabled a major company site in Kaluga on Friday. The outages disrupted online shopping and left taxi drivers in Moscow unable to contact passengers or accept fares.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian emergency teams finished rescue work in Zaporizhzhia on Sunday following Saturday’s Russian bombardment. Former regional leader Ivan Fedorov and Zelenskyy said the strikes killed 23 people, including four children, and wounded more than 30 others, with eight hospitalized. Across the border, local officials reported that a Ukrainian drone strike killed a man and wounded two women in Russia’s Bryansk border region on Sunday.
