Ukraine’s president has accused Russia of being insincere about moving towards peace as he reported an attack by 117 drones, just a day after both countries had agreed to a maritime ceasefire subject to Moscow obtaining agricultural sanctions relief.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that launching nationwide strikes after the peace negotiations was proof of Russia’s true intentions, though the Kremlin insisted the US-brokered talks were proceeding constructively.
Four people were reported killed and six injured across Ukraine by regional governors overnight, while the country’s air force said it shot down 56 of the 117 incoming drones and another 48 were decoys that caused no damage.
“Last night, there were another 117 proofs in our skies of how Russia continues to drag out this war,” Zelenskyy posted on X. “Launching such large-scale attacks after ceasefire negotiations is a clear signal to the whole world that Moscow is not going to pursue real peace.”
Russia’s defence ministry countered by saying that Ukraine had sought to strike Russian energy facilities overnight, targeting a gas storage site in occupied Crimea and electricity transmission in the border region of Bryansk.
“Thus, the Kyiv regime, while continuing to damage the Russian civilian energy infrastructure, is actually doing everything it can to thwart the agreements reached” by negotiators from Russia and the US, the Russian ministry said, though it was not immediately possible to verify the claims.
Parallel talks between Russia and the US and the US and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia this week had reached agreement on implementing a ceasefire in the Black Sea and a 30-day halt to strikes on energy targets already agreed to in principle by the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.
But the Kremlin emphasised that its agreement to a ceasefire was conditional on the US helping ease access to its exports of food and fertiliser, and the reconnection of state agricultural bank Rosselkhozbank to the Swift payments system. The US said it was studying the Russian request.
At a briefing on Wednesday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, praised the talks. “We are satisfied with how pragmatically and constructively our dialogue is developing and by how it is yielding results,” he said.
A list of Russian and Ukrainian targets to be covered by the energy moratorium had been agreed with the help of US negotiators, Peskov added, a point that had been announced by Zelenskyy the day before. Ukraine’s leader said the energy ceasefire should be ready to come into force from today.
Donald Trump has been pressing for a full end to the fighting in Ukraine, declaring on the campaign trail before his election that he could end the war in 24 hours, though earlier this month he described his own statement as “a little bit sarcastic”.
So far the parallel negotiations that took place in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, have brought relatively modest results – and raised questions over whether a full ceasefire is possible given the lack of trust between Moscow and Kyiv and ongoing fighting.
Overnight, the US president even questioned whether Putin was committed to a peace deal at this stage. “I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they’re dragging their feet,” Trump said in a TV interview.
“I’ve done it over the years, you know; I don’t want to sign a contract, I want to sort of stay in the game, but maybe I don’t want to do it, quite … I’m not sure. But no, I think Russia would like to see it end, and I think Zelenskyy would like to see it end at this point,” he told Newsmax.
Ukraine’s strategy is to engage constructively in the talks, showing it is ready to agree to intermediate ceasefire proposals, and switch the onus on peace to Russia in the belief the Kremlin will raise more pre-conditions.
Moscow, however, appears focused on what it can obtain from the US, with Trump acknowledging the US had had discussions about a division of Ukrainian territory with the Kremlin. No such negotiations had been had with Ukraine, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.
