Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Wednesday of launching air attacks that sparked fires and damaged infrastructure just hours after their leaders agreed to a limited ceasefire to halt attacks on energy infrastructure.
Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire sought by US president Donald Trump in a telephone call with the Russian leader on Tuesday.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had agreed to the US proposed 30-day ceasefire before the Putin-Trump call and later supported the more limited ceasefire on energy targets.
But after Russia launched its air attacks early on Wednesday, Mr Zelenskiy urged the world to block any attempts by Moscow to drag out the war.
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Mr Zelenskiy said that Russia launched more than 40 drones against Ukraine in the hours following the call between Mr Trump and Mr Putin.
“Russia is attacking civilian infrastructure and people – right now,” Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said overnight on Telegram.
Russia’s defence ministry said that its units destroyed 57 Ukrainian drones overnight, 35 of them over the border Kursk region.
Russia agreed to part of a US ceasefire proposal on Tuesday by calling a halt to attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities for 30 days, but said progress towards a peace deal hinged on the West ending its supply of military aid and intelligence to Kyiv.
In a call with Mr Trump, Mr Putin did not join Ukraine in supporting his plan for a month-long truce on land and in the Black Sea, but the White House said “technical negotiations” would start immediately in the Middle East on “a maritime ceasefire ... full ceasefire and permanent peace”.
Mr Trump wrote on social media that he had reached “an understanding” with Mr Putin “that we would be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine”.
“Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed,” he added, without giving more details of a call that he described as “very good and productive”.
Mr Zelenskiy backed a halt to strikes on energy infrastructure but said he hoped Mr Trump realised that Russia intended to seize more land and then deliver “ultimatums from a position of strength”.
Ukraine agreed to a full 30-day truce last week if Moscow reciprocated. Kyiv and European allies accuse Russia of stalling Mr Trump’s push for peace while making demands that would amount to capitulation after three years of all-out war and 11 years of conflict.
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Mr Putin raised questions about the “effective monitoring of a possible ceasefire ... and the need to stop forced mobilisation in Ukraine and rearmament of [its] armed forces,” the Kremlin said in a statement about Tuesday’s call.
“It was emphasised that a key condition for preventing an escalation of the conflict and working towards its resolution by political and diplomatic means should be a complete halt to foreign military aid and provision of intelligence information to Kyiv,” the Kremlin added.
Flows of US arms and intelligence to Kyiv restarted last week after Mr Trump paused them following a heated exchange in the White House with Mr Zelenskiy on February 28th.
Many European countries are pledging to increase provision of weapons and intelligence to Kyiv, amid fears that Mr Trump may slash or end military co-operation with Ukraine and Europe, and could also cut a sweeping geopolitical deal with Mr Putin without the involvement of Kyiv and other European capitals.
The Kremlin said Mr Putin revealed during Tuesday’s “detailed and frank” call that Russia and Ukraine would each release 175 prisoners on Wednesday and Moscow would allow 23 seriously injured Ukrainian prisoners to go home “as a gesture of goodwill”.
Mr Putin also restated a demand that any settlement to the war must “be comprehensive, sustainable and long-term and ... take into account the absolute need to remove the root causes of the crisis [and] Russia’s legitimate security interests.”
The Kremlin continues to claim that the “root causes” of the war are Nato aggression towards Russia, and the “Nazi” regime that it says runs democratic and pro-western Ukraine and supposedly oppresses its Russian-speaking minority.
Kyiv and its allies dismiss these claims as a crude pretext for Moscow’s aggression but, in his push for a swift end to the war and a rapprochement with Russia, Mr Trump’s administration has piled pressure on Ukraine and told it not to expect to regain all occupied land, join Nato or secure US peacekeepers under any peace deal.
Mr Trump is yet to demand any concessions publicly from Mr Putin but has warned that the US could use “devastating” economic and financial measures against Russia if it stymied peace efforts. – additional reporting: Reuters
