After a barrage of drone attacks across the country overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Vladimir Putin’s promise not to attack energy infrastructure is “very much at variance with reality”.
Zelenskyy stated that he will speak with Donald Trump later today and expects to learn more about what the American leader said to Putin in a phone call about a possible ceasefire, and the next steps.
“Even last night, after Putin’s conversation with … Trump, when Putin said that he was allegedly giving orders to stop strikes on Ukrainian energy, there were 150 drones launched overnight, including on energy facilities,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Helsinki with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
These strikes, which damaged a hospital and hit civilian areas, came after Putin refused to support a 30-day full ceasefire in discussions with Trump.
The White House described Trump’s call with Putin as a first step in a “movement towards peace”. Washington hopes that this will lead to a ceasefire on the Black Sea, and ultimately a complete and lasting end to all the fighting.
There was no sign that Putin had changed his mind about the conditions he set for a potential peace deal. These conditions are strongly opposed by Kyiv.
Zelenskyy stated that territorial concessions would be a difficult issue to negotiate in the future.
“For us, the red line is the recognition of the Ukrainian temporarily occupied territories as Russian,” he said. “We will not go for it.”
Air raid sirens were heard in Kyiv shortly after Trump and Putin’s lengthy phone conversation on Tuesday. Residents took cover as the explosions followed.
Despite attempts to repel the attack, several strikes struck civilian infrastructure including a direct strike on a Sumy hospital and attacks on Donetsk Region cities. Russian drones have also been reported in the Kyiv region, Zhytomyr and Sumy, Chernihiv Poltava Kharkiv Kirovohrad Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that their air defenses had intercepted 57 Ukrainian UAVs over the Azov Sea and several Russian regions, including the border provinces Kursk and Bryansk as well as the nearby regions Oryol & Tula.
Separately authorities in Krasnodar, a region that borders the Crimean Peninsula and was annexed to Russia in 2014, have reported a drone attack in their area started a fire in an oil depot.
