United States President Donald Trump has insisted that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to stop striking each other’s energy infrastructure, as he called on both sides to end the “ridiculous” war.
Trump’s comments on Monday came even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces had struck at least six Ukrainian energy facilities since the US president declared the truce on Sunday.
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“Well, they agreed,” Trump told reporters, referring to Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Because I said, ‘You agree’. That’s why they agreed, because I said they agree.”
When pressed about the Russian strikes, Trump said, “Well, I’d have to look at it and see, because there’s been violations on both sides.”
The US president called the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February ۲۰۲۲, a “disaster” and claimed, without offering evidence, that at least ۳۲,۰۰۰ people had been killed this month alone.
“All I know is that Zelenskyy and Putin have to get together and end that ridiculous war,” he said.
Kyiv blindsided
Trump had blindsided Kyiv and its European allies when he announced the purported energy ceasefire on Sunday. The announcement came two days after he temporarily eased US sanctions on Russian diesel, a move that drew outrage in Europe and Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said it reversed years of Western efforts to isolate Russia’s economy and would only embolden Putin.
Lawmakers from both major parties in the United States have also said the diesel decision appears to violate US law. Several Republicans have objected that it undercuts a law Trump himself signed to tighten restrictions on Moscow.
Zelenskyy said on Monday that Ukraine supported an energy ceasefire and had carried out no attacks on Russian refineries overnight. He said Kyiv was prepared to sign “guarantees to make sure they can be trusted”.
But he said it was “increasingly evident” that Moscow would not comply.
“Today alone, the Russians have attacked ۶ energy facilities in Ukraine. ۳۳ people were wounded across the country,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “This is what happens when Russia sees the prospect of higher revenues for its war machine.”
Russia, however, has rejected any pause in fighting, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov promising to press ahead with the military campaign.
“I do not think he deserves a respite,” he said of Zelenskyy. “I don’t think we’ll be buying into assurances and promises again.” Russia, he added, would continue to pursue the goals of what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
US midterms
Trump, meanwhile, has portrayed Ukraine, rather than Russia, as the main obstacle to peace. He has said that Putin is more eager on a deal than Zelenskyy, and has called on Ukrainians to vote their president out of office – an unusually harsh turn in a relationship that has been strained since Trump returned to the White House in ۲۰۲۵.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, DC, said Trump has previously announced agreements between Russia and Ukraine that never materialised.
“He says he wants to protect industries in the US like farmers and ranchers, and to do that he needs the price to go down. But it seems that he thinks there’s a deal, but no one else is sure that there actually is one,” Fisher said.
The latest announcement, according to our correspondent, appeared to be driven by Trump’s desire to bring down diesel prices before the US midterm elections on November ۳.
Most polls predict that Republicans will lose control of Congress as voters grow frustrated with rising prices, particularly for petrol.
An opinion survey published on October ۱ by the Associated Press news agency and the University of Chicago suggested that ۶۵ percent of US adults blame the White House for the high cost of living, especially Trump’s tariff policies and his new war against Iran.
Ukraine’s European allies, meanwhile, voiced scepticism about the energy ceasefire and approved the largest set of European Union sanctions since Russia’s ۲۰۲۲ invasion.
The bloc’s foreign ministers added some ۱,۵۶۹ people and businesses to the bloc’s sanctions list to maintain the pressure on Moscow.
“Russia will only negotiate seriously under pressure, which is why we are sticking to our sanctions against Russia,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Berlin.
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