President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop striking each other’s energy infrastructure. Then, overnight into Tuesday, both sides launched new attacks on energy.
Russia fired a volley of 200 drones at Ukraine, hitting energy and port facilities, Ukrainian officials said. In the capital, Kyiv, one person was killed and seven others were injured in attacks on two gas stations, warehouses and other sites, according to local authorities.
In the south and the west, Russian strikes damaged homes, as well as port and transportation infrastructure.
Kyiv’s military, meanwhile, said it struck the Syzran oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region. Ukrainian officials also reported strikes on a drone production facility in Taganrog and a drone preparation and launch site in the Oryol region.
This is the daily reality of Russia’s assault, now in its fifth year, to bomb Ukraine’s military and population into submission.
The Kremlin has launched near nightly drone and missile attacks on Kyiv and other cities. To counter that assault, Ukraine has intensified its campaign of strikes on oil facilities and military targets deep inside Russia.
Trump announced Monday that the two sides had agreed to halt the deadly aerial exchange, which he said was the primary driver of a global fuel shortage that has driven diesel prices in the U.S. to record highs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seemed to question Trump’s assertion that a deal had been reached, saying that he would promise to halt strikes on energy only if Russia did the same and that he did not trust the Kremlin to do so.
The Kremlin welcomed the idea Tuesday but described it as a proposal still being discussed with Washington.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Trump’s proposal “a very good idea, a good initiative.” He added that “we are in contact with the Americans. We always support peaceful solutions.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what exactly had been agreed on and on the apparent disconnect between Trump’s statement and subsequent events.
In May, Trump secured a three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, during which Russian President Vladimir Putin held a “victory day parade.”
Both sides agreed this month to a three-day pause in strikes while Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, held talks in Moscow and Kyiv. Those negotiations did not produce demonstrable results, and fighting resumed.
On Monday, Trump blamed rising diesel prices on the Russia-Ukraine war, including Kyiv’s attempts to repel Russia’s assault, rather than the assault he launched against Iran.
That’s despite prices having skyrocketed following the American-Israeli bombing campaign on the Iran, a conflict now in its seventh month that shows little sign of ending.
Tuesday also brought developments on the Ukrainian battlefield, with a senior Ukrainian commander announcing a new offensive in Donetsk, near the strategic fortress cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
Brig. Gen. Andrii Biletskyi said his forces had cleared Russian infiltration groups from roughly 29 square miles and recaptured another 4 square miles.
It is a war that also constantly threatens to spill beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Overnight into Tuesday, NATO fighter jets shot down an uncrewed aircraft in Lithuanian airspace. The drone’s origin remained under investigation. That came less than a day after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Russian attacks close to the military alliance’s territory would prompt greater support for Ukraine.
Separately, Denmark summoned Russia’s ambassador after a Russian warship fired flares toward a Danish military helicopter in the Baltic Sea on Monday, according to Danish authorities.
