KYIV: The Kremlin accused Kyiv Wednesday of countering US-Russia efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, saying it had tried to strike Russian energy infrastructure despite Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump agreeing a halt on such attacks.
Putin announced a 30-day pause on striking Ukrainian energy facilities following a call with Trump on Tuesday, after turning down the US president’s previous demand to pause all hostilities.
“Unfortunately, so far see there has been no reciprocity on the part of the Kyiv regime. There were attempts to strike our energy infrastructure,“ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“These attacks are countering our common (Russian-American) efforts.”
Peskov said Putin had “immediately” given the command to stop energy attacks on Ukraine, claiming that seven Russian drones were “in the air” to be used on Ukrainian energy infrastructure but were instead shot down by air defences.
Both countries attacked each other with drones after the Putin-Trump call.
The Kremlin said Putin had only committed to a ceasefire in strikes on energy infrastructure, clarifying a discrepancy between Russian and US reports after US envoy Steve Witkoff said Moscow had agreed to halt strikes on all infrastructure.
Kyiv had last week committed to an unconditional ceasefire with Russia.
The Kremlin said that Putin and Trump “trust each other and are intent to gradually move towards the normalisation of ties” more than three years into Moscow’s offensive.
Peskov said the phone call between Trump and Putin lasted around two hours and that the pair had also discussed military aid to Ukraine, without giving details as “it is quite a sensitive topic and probably should not be discussed in public”.
