(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed that Russia and Ukraine agreed to halt attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure, repeating a claim he made nearly a month ago that turned out not to be true.
“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 Truth Social.
Following the announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios that the energy truce was “news to me,” suggesting that Trump yet again announced an agreement that didn’t exist.
Later in the day, Zelensky said in his nightly address that he was ready to halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure if Moscow was ready to do the same, though he made similar comments after Trump’s last announcement.
“Ukraine is ready to refrain from striking Russian energy infrastructure – and we count on the same readiness from Russia, as well as on the agreement reached by the President of the United States on this matter. We welcome such an agreement,” Zelensky said.
So far, Russia has not commented on Trump’s announcement, which came after he repeated criticism of Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. The Financial Times reported that the US is threatening to cut off European-funded US arms shipments to Ukraine if the strikes continue.
While Trump has been critical of the attacks on Russian oil refineries, they are known to be supported by US intelligence and will likely continue unless that support is also cut off. The FT report said the US is also threatening to “cut off intelligence sharing,” but it remains unclear whether the Trump administration is willing to take that step
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
