Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of violating an agreement with Donald Trump to refrain from attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, as freezing temperatures plunged Kyiv into darkness and left more than 1,000 residential buildings without heating. The Ukrainian president said Moscow launched a massive overnight attack involving 71 ballistic missiles and 450 drones, deliberately targeting the energy grid as temperatures dropped to -20C.
Trump had last week framed the agreement as a personal request to Vladimir Putin to stop strikes on energy facilities for one week due to the exceptionally cold weather. “He agreed to do that. And I have to tell you it was very nice,” the US president said on Thursday. The Kremlin later said the truce would last only until Sunday, while Ukraine believed it should have continued until this Friday.
Trump told reporters on Tuesday that Putin had kept his word, noting that the agreement expired on Sunday. “It was Sunday to Sunday, and it opened up and he hit them hard last night. He kept his word on that,” he said at the White House. Asked if he was disappointed, Trump replied: “I want him to end the war.”
Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, visiting Kyiv on Tuesday, accused Moscow of trying to “create chaos for innocent civilians”. He praised Trump as the only person capable of brokering a peaceful solution, nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion. “Be assured that Nato stands with Ukraine and is ready to do so for years to come,” Rutte told Zelenskyy. A second round of talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US is due in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and Thursday.
In Kyiv, residents reported loud explosions from 1am on Tuesday that injured at least six people and damaged five districts. A drone strike on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed two teenagers and wounded at least nine. “Hundreds of thousands of families, including children, were deliberately left without heating during the harshest winter conditions, with temperatures dropping to -25C,” Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on X.
Zelenskyy called on Western partners to step up supplies of missiles for air defence systems. “Without pressure on Russia, this war will not end. Now Moscow is choosing terror and escalation, and that’s why maximum pressure is needed,” he said. The attack also damaged the Motherland monument, a Soviet-era statue overlooking the frozen Dnipro River.
