Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed a US-brokered energy ceasefire with Russia but warned that Kyiv would respond if Moscow failed to honour the arrangement announced by President Donald Trump.
In a livestreamed address on Monday morning, Zelenskyy said Russian drone attacks had continued over Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, raising doubts about whether the ceasefire was being observed.
“If the Americans need it, we are ready to sign these guarantees to make sure they can be trusted, and it’s important that we all see this situation in the same way,” he said, claiming that Russia had already breached the agreement.
Zelenskyy said Russian drones powered by jet engines had continued entering Ukrainian airspace, forcing the country’s air defences to intercept many of them.
“All morning today, more and more Russian jet-powered shaheds have continued to enter our skies over Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. We shoot down many of them, and if we didn’t, there would clearly be even more damage to our energy infrastructure,” he said.
“For now, this is Putin’s answer to Trump.”
The Ukrainian leader’s remarks followed his criticism on Sunday of continued Russian strikes against the country’s energy infrastructure, including an attack on a power plant in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border.
Ukraine’s state-owned energy company, Naftogaz, also reported an overnight strike on its gas production facilities in the Kharkiv region.
The company said the attack, carried out with a jet-powered drone, sparked a fire but caused no injuries. However, some equipment at the facility was damaged.
“Critical equipment was damaged in the attack,” Naftogaz’s acting chief executive, Sergii Fedorenko, said in a statement.
Trump Announces Energy Ceasefire
Trump announced the proposed energy ceasefire on Sunday, saying both Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt attacks on energy infrastructure. The announcement came as his administration sought to address fuel costs ahead of the US midterm elections.
“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Trump wrote on social media on Sunday.
However, uncertainty remained over the terms of the arrangement after the Kremlin said on Monday that discussions concerning an energy ceasefire were continuing.
According to Reuters, the Kremlin said it would provide further information in due course. It declined to clarify whether any agreement would apply exclusively to oil refineries.
Russia’s presidential office did not immediately respond to a request for further information from CNBC.
Efforts to secure a lasting truce have repeatedly encountered difficulties since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Trump has made several attempts to broker an end to the conflict, but none has yet produced a lasting settlement.
Former International Energy Agency oil head Neil Atkinson cautioned against expecting too much from the latest development, noting that previous ceasefire efforts had struggled to hold.
“We’ve been here many times before over the last four and a half years, so I don’t think we should build our hopes up too much,” Atkinson told Squawk Box Europe on Monday.
He also questioned the potential impact of the reported arrangement on energy markets, saying the volumes involved were relatively small.
“The reality of it is that the volumes talked about are very small,” said Atkinson, who is also a visiting fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics. “The deal that’s been agreed is not really market moving in any significant way.”
EU Warns Against Easing Pressure On Moscow
Trump said Russia would supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and a further four million tonnes, depending on the condition of Russian refineries.
The proposed arrangement has also raised concerns in the European Union over the potential financial benefits to Moscow.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas welcomed the prospect of an energy ceasefire but warned against reducing pressure on Russia through sanctions relief.
“This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia,” she said.
“Suspending sanctions on Russian diesel provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war,” she said in a statement Saturday.
EU foreign ministers were scheduled to meet in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss the war and other foreign policy matters.
Ahead of the meeting, Kallas said the bloc would adopt nearly 1,600 additional sanctions listings targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex. She described the move as the largest expansion of the EU’s sanctions list since Russia began its invasion.
Meanwhile, oil prices moved higher following Zelenskyy’s remarks on Monday, reversing an earlier decline of about 1.5 per cent.
Brent crude futures for December delivery rose 0.69 per cent to $105.44 per barrel at 5:30 a.m. ET, while West Texas Intermediate futures for November gained 0.54 per cent to $92.35 per barrel.
The continued reports of attacks and uncertainty surrounding the ceasefire have left questions over whether the proposed arrangement will hold and how significantly it could affect energy supplies and prices.
