Vladimir Putin’s forces bombarded Ukrainian energy facilities within hours of Donald Trump’s boast that he had secured a partial ceasefire.
Trump, 80, announced Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to immediately stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure. While providing no details of the supposed breakthrough, he declared on Truth Social that the two countries had reached an agreement. “Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” the U.S. president wrote.
Except nobody else seems to have got the memo.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Trump’s announcement, which Moscow had not publicly confirmed, caught him by surprise.
Zelensky, 48, said the purported agreement had been “news to me,” while insisting Ukraine would halt strikes against Russian energy targets only if Moscow reciprocated.
By Monday, he was openly mocking Trump’s demands. Zelensky told the Warsaw Security Forum that Putin, 74, apparently “does not read Truth Social” after Russian forces attacked a power station in Kharkiv almost immediately after Trump’s declaration.
The attacks continued overnight, leaving Ukrainians without electricity and damaging infrastructure across several regions.
In Izyum, northeastern Ukraine, residents were left without power after Russian strikes damaged the local electricity network, the BBC reported. Railway and electricity installations were also attacked in the western Zhytomyr region, where firefighters battled blazes from repeated Russian strikes, the outlet said.
In a separate attack on Sunday evening, a Russian drone strike killed three people and injured nine, including children, in the village of Pisochyn, according to the Associated Press.
European leaders expressed doubts about Trump’s announcement. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday that the bloc would welcome a ceasefire once Russia demonstrated it was observing one.
The apparent diplomatic failure came just days after Trump agreed to ease sanctions against Russia as part of a deal intended to release Russian diesel onto global markets, as he struggles with soaring fuel prices ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The president has blamed Ukrainian attacks against Russian refineries for worsening the global shortage, despite the damage to energy supplies caused by his own war with Iran.
But the Kremlin reportedly offered no concessions toward ending its invasion during Trump’s Friday phone conversation with Putin. Instead, the Russian leader maintained his demands while Trump publicly suggested Ukraine needed a new president.
It was not the first time Trump had prematurely proclaimed progress. He announced a similar energy truce in September, but fighting continued.
By Monday morning, there had been no reported public confirmation from Moscow that it had agreed to the latest ceasefire.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
