Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of deliberately violating an energy ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump, after a massive overnight barrage of missiles and drones left hundreds of thousands without power.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack was a direct hit on the infrastructure covered by the American-led truce. He described the strike as "entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale," and said "Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the US," according to reports from Agence France-Presse.
"Russia does not consider the American president's statements strong," Zelensky wrote on X.
The attack came just two days after Trump blindsided both Kyiv and Moscow by unilaterally announcing an energy ceasefire on Sunday. The announcement followed Trump's deal to supply diesel fuel to heavily sanctioned Russia, a move that angered Ukraine's Western allies.
Kyiv was hit by a barrage of powerful ballistic missiles and attack drones targeting energy facilities and critical infrastructure, despite the ceasefire. Four people were killed in the city and power to at least 600,000 people was cut after significant damage to power facilities, Ukrainian officials said.
Power plants also came under ballistic missile attack in the eastern Kharkiv region, hitting electricity and heating infrastructure, Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky said.
Zelensky said the strike involved 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 attack drones. He said the strike was "a targeted Russian ballistic missile strike specifically against energy infrastructure — the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American president."
Ukraine said it has observed the ceasefire and has not struck Russian oil refineries in the past two days. The US leader has repeatedly lashed out at Zelensky for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries and has even said he should be replaced as president.
A senior Ukrainian official confirmed reports that Washington threatened to pull intelligence-sharing with Kyiv that it relies on to detect incoming attacks.
Presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov also said Ukraine had little warning of the attack after SpaceX introduced limits on Starlink services. "Tonight SpaceX introduced a speed limit for the Starlink terminals in motion," he said. "Our defence forces were not warned about this restriction, which led to the disruption of a number of missions."
