Ukrainian officials reported strikes on gas and electricity sites hours after Donald Trump announced a halt to attacks.
Russian forces attacked energy facilities across Ukraine on Monday, hours after United States President Donald Trump said both countries had agreed to an immediate halt to strikes on power infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Speaking in a television interview and by videolink to the Warsaw Security Forum, Zelenskyy said Kyiv held off from attacking Russian facilities overnight but saw Russian missiles and drones strike gas stations, gas production sites and electricity plants. Kremlin officials did not confirm agreeing to any truce, while Ukraine introduced rolling power cuts to protect damaged equipment.
The exchange followed Trump’s announcement on Sunday, when Trump announced an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia on his Truth Social platform and told both sides not to break it.
Strikes reported across Ukraine
Zelenskyy told Fox News that Russian forces struck gas infrastructure immediately after Trump’s message, describing the attacks as Vladimir Putin’s direct answer to the White House initiative. Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Washington, Denys Sienik, said Russian forces hit a Kyiv power plant and a Kharkiv thermal plant, adding that Russia had struck Ukrainian power generation and transmission sites more than 200 times over the preceding week.
According to BBC News, Russian strikes damaged power grids and caused blackouts in Izyum, while hitting western Ukrainian rail and energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy said 33 people suffered injuries in attacks on energy targets across the country. State power operator Ukrenergo announced electricity rationing and reported fresh outages in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk. Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz reported that overnight strikes hit gas production facilities in Kharkiv, setting off a fire and damaging critical equipment, Al Jazeera reported.
Civilian areas also came under fire. A Russian drone strike in the village of Pisochyn near Kharkiv killed three people and injured nine others near grocery stores and apartments, PBS NewsHour reported via prosecutors. In Kyiv, daytime strikes injured two people and ignited fires across several districts, city authorities said. Ukraine’s Air Force reported shooting down or jamming 89 of 121 Russian drones overnight. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces intercepted 151 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, Crimea and the Black Sea, while targeting port sites and a cargo ship heading toward Odesa.
Dispute over fuel deals and leadership
The clash follows rising friction between Washington and Kyiv over attacks on Russian oil refineries. Trump had previously blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian fuel plants for high fuel costs and struck a deal to import Russian diesel by waiving sanctions on Moscow’s exports.
Zelenskyy rejected the idea that Ukrainian strikes drove up fuel prices, pointing instead to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. He also pushed back on Trump’s demand to stop hitting refineries unless Russia stopped pounding Ukraine’s electrical grid. Zelenskyy said an energy truce had to protect Ukraine’s electricity supply and not just Russian refineries. Over the weekend, Trump also suggested Ukraine should replace Zelenskyy after disagreements over the conflict.
“If President Trump wants to change the leader in Ukraine, he has to know that only our people can change,” Zelenskyy responded. He added that holding a vote was impossible while Russian missiles and drones target cities daily, though he said he would organize elections if a ceasefire held for at least 60 days.
Diplomatic pushback and next steps
Moscow showed little interest in a prolonged pause. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday that European nations would use any election break to send more weapons to Ukraine. “I don’t think he deserves a respite,” Lavrov said Monday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would not confirm that Russia agreed to Trump’s energy truce, stating only that contacts were ongoing. Peskov said Moscow would consider halting attacks only on an actual election day, claiming Ukraine sought a two-month break simply to regroup its forces.
European leaders reacted with skepticism to Trump’s announcement. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc welcomed the idea of halting attacks but had seen no evidence Russia would honor it. The European Union responded by expanding its sanctions list with nearly 1,600 new designations targeting Russia’s military-industrial network, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged to push for even stronger economic measures in Brussels.
