Home
+
Published : 19 Mar 2025, 10:32 PM
Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Wednesday of violating a new agreement to refrain from attacks on energy targets hours after it was agreed by US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin.
But a prisoner swap touted as a confidence-building step went ahead, and Trump followed Tuesday's phone call with Putin with a call on Wednesday with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying afterwards that "we are very much on track".
Trump said his "very good telephone call" with Zelensky lasted an hour, their first conversation since an Oval Office meeting descended into a shouting match on February 28.
The discussion followed Tuesday's call with Putin, and aimed "to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs", Trump posted on social media.
During Putin's call with Trump on Tuesday, the Russian leader rejected a proposed full 30-day ceasefire, which had been sought by Trump and previously accepted by Ukraine. But Putin agreed to pause attacks on energy infrastructure, a proposal Zelensky accepted.
That narrowly defined pause appeared in doubt on Wednesday, however, with Moscow saying Ukraine hit an oil depot in southern Russia while Kyiv said Russia had struck hospitals and homes, and knocked out power to some of its railways.
Still, the two sides announced they had carried out an exchange of prisoners, each releasing 175 troops in a deal facilitated by the United Arab Emirates. Moscow said it also freed an additional 22 wounded Ukrainians as a goodwill gesture.
Zelensky said on Wednesday that the continued attacks showed Moscow's words did not match its actions, and that Russia was not ready for peace. He said the United States should be put in charge of monitoring any ceasefire.
"If the Russians will not strike our facilities, then we will definitely not strike theirs," he said at a briefing in Helsinki alongside the president of Finland.
The Kremlin said it had called off planned attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including by shooting down seven of Russia's own drones heading towards Ukraine. It accused Kyiv of failing to call off its own attacks in what it called an attempt to sabotage the agreement.
EUROPEANS WARY
Trump has long promised to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two. But his outreach to Putin has unnerved European allies, who fear it heralds a fundamental shift after 80 years in which defending Europe from Russian expansionism was the core mission of US foreign policy.
Some European leaders said Putin's rejection of Trump's proposed full truce was proof Moscow not seeking peace. The offer to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities counted for "nothing" and Trump would have to win greater concessions, Germany's defence minister said.
"Attacks on civilian infrastructure in the first night after this supposedly pivotal and great phone call have not abated," Boris Pistorius told German broadcaster ZDF. "Putin is playing a game here and I'm sure that the American president won't be able to sit and watch for much longer."
But other allies were more hopeful. The Putin-Trump call was "a first step, then we'll see when the negotiations begin," said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, noting that the sides agreed to discuss truce proposals at meetings in Saudi Arabia.
SCORES OF ATTACKS
Attacks on energy infrastructure have been a major part of the war's impact far from the front lines. For most of the past three years, Russia has relentlessly attacked Ukraine's power grid, arguing that civilian infrastructure is a legitimate target because it facilitates Kyiv's warfighting capabilities.
Ukrainians say such attacks have subsided in recent months, with backup power generators that once crowded the streets of Kyiv becoming less prominent since late 2024.
For its part, Kyiv has steadily developed capabilities to mount long-range attacks into Russia, frequently using drones to target distant oil and gas sites which it says provide fuel for Russia's troops and income to fund the war.
In the attacks overnight, Ukrainian regional authorities said Russian drones damaged two hospitals in the northeastern Sumy region, causing no injuries but forcing the evacuation of patients and staff.
Near Kyiv, a 60-year-old man was injured and airstrikes hit homes and businesses in the Bucha district north of the capital. Attacks had damaged power systems for the railways in Dnipropetrovsk in the south on Wednesday, the railway said.
Authorities in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar said a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an oil depot near the village of Kavkazskaya. No one was injured in the fire, which had spread across 3,700 sq metres as of 4pm Moscow time (1300 GMT).
The depot is a rail terminal for Russian oil supplies to a pipeline linking Kazakhstan to the Black Sea. A representative of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium operator said oil flows were stable; two industry sources said the attack could reduce Russian supplies to the pipeline.
