(AFP) – Ukraine and Russia on Wednesday accused each other of not respecting a halt on energy infrastructure strikes, after talks between Washington and the Kremlin aimed at ending the grinding three-year conflict. US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a 90-minute call on Tuesday, in which the Kremlin leader backed a limited 30-day halt on strikes against Ukraine’s power grid. President Volodymyr Zelensky also said Kyiv supported the moratorium but on Wednesday Ukraine’s defence ministry said an overnight barrage of Russian missile and drones struck the war-battered nation.
“Today Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire,” said Zelensky. One person was killed and two hospitals were damaged, the defence ministry reported. Ukraine’s national railway service said the barrage hit railway energy infrastructure in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. “So much for a pause in the attacks on the energy sector or an energy truce executed by the enemy!” a railway statement added.
Russia’s defence ministry reported a “deliberate” Ukrainian attack overnight on an oil depot in the south of the country which was aimed at “derailing” Trump’s attempts to broker an end to the fighting. “These attacks are countering our common efforts,” added Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, referring to the US-Russian talks. Zelensky is due to speak to Trump on Wednesday to learn more about the US leader’s conversation with Putin and “next steps” in ceasefire talks. But he warned beforehand against making “any concessions” to Russia after Putin in his call to Trump demanded an end to Western military aid to Ukraine during any ceasefire.
Putin told Trump that for a full ceasefire to work, Ukraine must not be allowed to rearm and must halt mandatory mobilisation. Kyiv said that would leave the nation vulnerable to further Russian attacks and wants the United States to oversee a ceasefire against energy infrastructure.
– ‘Ready to end war’ –
Tuesday’s highly anticipated call did not secure the breakthrough ceasefire endorsed by Ukraine last week but according to the Kremlin saw Putin order his military to pause strikes against Ukraine’s power grid for 30 days. Russia and Ukraine exchanged 372 prisoners, Moscow said Wednesday, which was planned “as a goodwill gesture”. Trump’s overtures to Putin have spooked the United States’s NATO allies, and indications Washington will no longer guarantee European security have prompted calls for a steep increase in domestic defence spending.
Zelensky has accused Russia of not being “ready to end this war” and in Kyiv, war-weary Ukrainians were prone to agree. “I don’t believe Putin at all, not a single word. He only understands force,” said Lev Sholoudko, 32. Trump, who says he has an “understanding” with Putin, stunned the world in February when he started direct talks with Russia to end the conflict, sparking fears among allies that he would capitulate to Moscow’s demands. Trump hailed the call with Putin as “good and productive”.
The Kremlin statement after the talks referred to “energy infrastructure” whereas Trump’s interpretation is the broader “energy and infrastructure,” which would include all civil infrastructure and not just energy-specific sites like power stations, transformers, and oil installations.
– ‘Count on us’ –
Trump acknowledged in an interview on Fox News that pressing Putin into a full ceasefire would be tough as “Russia has the advantage”. Since seizing Crimea in 2014 and launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Moscow now occupies around a fifth of Ukraine. Washington has made clear that Ukraine will likely have to cede territory in any deal.
The UK and French governments have been cobbling together a so-called “coalition of the willing” to protect any ceasefire in Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron vowed after the Kremlin statement that they would keep sending military aid to Ukraine. “Ukraine can count on us,” Scholz said.
But soldiers on Ukraine’s front line remained doubtful peace could soon be at hand. “How can you trust people who attack you and kill civilians, including children?” said Oleksandr, 35, who has returned to military training in the Donetsk region after being wounded in combat.
burs-phz/jm – Stanislav DOSHCHITSYN
© 2024 AFP
