Zelenskyy Accuses Putin of Breaching Trump's 'Energy Ceasefire' Within Hours

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of breaching an "energy ceasefire" that US President Donald Trump claims he brokered — within hours of the announcement. Speaking via video link at the Warsaw Security Forum in Poland on Monday, Zelenskyy said Russian forces had continued striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure even after Trump's declaration of a mutual pause on such attacks.

The episode has once again exposed the gap between Trump's pronouncements on the four-and-a-half-year-old war and events on the ground, raising fresh questions about how — and whether — the latest claimed agreement was ever reached.

Trump's Sunday announcement

On Sunday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that both Russia and Ukraine had "agreed" to an immediate halt in strikes on energy facilities. "Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!" he wrote, adding his customary "Thank you for your attention to this matter."

The post offered almost no detail: no start time beyond "immediately", no mechanism for verification, no statement of who negotiated the terms or what each side had promised. Within hours, confusion took hold. Zelenskyy told the US publication Axios that the supposed deal was "news to me", and said on X that Ukraine was still awaiting details from Washington — though he added that Kyiv would "fully" support genuine steps towards de-escalation.

Moscow, for its part, declined to confirm anything. Asked on Monday whether Russia had agreed to the ceasefire, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov offered only three words: "Contacts are ongoing."

What Zelenskyy says happened next

Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum, Zelenskyy said Kyiv had first learned of the purported agreement through media reports — not through diplomatic channels. "We support it," he said, "but I have not heard approval of this proposal from the Russian side." Then, he said, Ukraine was "horribly surprised" when strikes on energy targets followed Trump's announcement.

According to the Ukrainian president, Russia hit a power plant in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, a gas production facility, and a civilian gas station. In a separate post sharing details of a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Zelenskyy added that a Shahed drone had struck a power plant in Kyiv just before that conversation, knocking out power across several districts. "All of this happened AFTER the President of the United States made his statement about an energy ceasefire," he wrote.

"It was clear that Putin does not read Truth Social," Zelenskyy told the Warsaw audience, in one of the sharpest lines of a speech that also called on Washington to ensure Moscow's compliance. "This energy ceasefire can work, and it can become a major step towards ending the war, if the Americans truly step in now and make sure the Russians respect it," he said. "If Russia does not agree to an energy ceasefire, we will respond."

A familiar pattern of phantom deals

This is not the first energy truce that has evaporated almost as quickly as it was announced. In mid-September, Trump declared that both sides had agreed "not to hit" each other's energy infrastructure — an arrangement that never materialised, with neither side confirming it. Before that, an energy ceasefire reached in March 2025 was broken by Russia, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.

Trump has a track record of using his social media account to announce truces and arrangements before either party has confirmed them. The habit has repeatedly forced diplomats and journalists to reconstruct, in real time, whether an agreement actually exists — and it has repeatedly left Kyiv in the position of responding to arrangements it says it was never consulted on.

Both sides have spent months targeting each other's energy infrastructure. Russia has systematically struck Ukrainian power stations, heating plants and grid nodes, a campaign Kyiv describes as an attempt to deny civilians electricity, heat and running water as winter approaches and wear down public resistance. Ukraine, in turn, has hit Russian refineries and fuel depots, contributing to fuel shortages and price pressure inside Russia itself.

The diesel sanctions twist

Trump's announcement came just two days after he declared a temporary easing of US sanctions on Russian diesel — a move that provoked anger in Kyiv and among European allies, who argued it would hand Vladimir Putin an economic lifeline and embolden further aggression.

The sequencing struck critics as incoherent: sanctions relief for Moscow on one day, a claimed ceasefire requiring Moscow's cooperation on another, with no visible link between the two. European officials, already wary of Trump's bilateral approach to the war, made clear they did not regard the energy truce as operative. "I have not noted, over the last 48 hours, any energy ceasefire coming from the Russian side," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters at the Paris motor show.

Why an energy truce matters beyond Ukraine

An effective pause in energy strikes would carry weight well beyond the front line. Mutual attacks on energy infrastructure have added upward pressure to global energy prices at a time when fuel costs are already elevated — partly on the back of the broader conflict in the Middle East involving the US, Israel and Iran, which has rattled oil markets.

For households and businesses, that price pressure shows up in heating bills and transport costs, and for governments it complicates the fight against inflation. Currency markets feel the ripple effects too: energy-importing economies face heavier import bills, a dynamic readers can track in real time with a currency converter. And as with any geopolitical shock, uncertainty tends to push investors towards traditional safe havens — one reason gold prices often firm when ceasefire hopes falter and conflicts grind on.

For Ukraine itself, the stakes are immediate and physical. With winter approaching, each strike on the grid reduces the country's ability to keep homes heated and hospitals running. Repair crews have become adept at restoring power after attacks, but the cumulative damage mounts, and every destroyed substation is harder to replace than the last.

What happens now

Zelenskyy has placed the ball squarely in Washington's court. Ukraine says it will honour a genuine, verified pause — but it wants to see the terms, and it wants the United States to enforce them. His warning that Ukraine will "respond" if Russia does not comply suggests Kyiv is prepared to resume its own long-range strikes on Russian energy targets if the one-sided restraint is not reciprocated.

Whether the White House follows up with diplomacy or lets the Sunday post stand as the whole of its effort remains unclear. What is clear is that, less than 24 hours into the supposed energy ceasefire, Ukrainian cities were already tallying the damage from strikes that — according to Kyiv — proved the truce never existed at all.