Zelensky Sees No Sign Russia Is Honoring Trump’s Energy Truce

A day after President Trump declared an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that he saw no evidence Moscow was observing it. “There is no indication that Russia is complying,” he wrote, according to CBS News, adding that Ukraine was ready to guarantee the truce if Russia took corresponding steps and that progress depended on American pressure on Moscow.

Russia struck a power plant in eastern Ukraine within hours of Trump’s Sunday announcement, and by Monday afternoon it had hit six more energy facilities around the country, CBS News reported. Zelensky has said he is open to an energy ceasefire only if it includes an end to attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, the Associated Press reported.

The Kremlin has not said whether it agreed to anything. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that “contacts are ongoing.” Asked about Zelensky’s request for at least 60 days to prepare elections, Peskov said Putin could order a ceasefire only on voting day itself, the AP reported. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed Zelensky’s comments as an effort to win a pause in the fighting, saying, “I don’t think he deserves a respite.”

Moscow did move on diesel. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced that Russia was lifting the export ban it imposed in July, saying production could cover both domestic needs and the volumes agreed for export. The step clears the way for the deal Trump announced Friday to ease American sanctions on Russian diesel. Analysts say the volumes involved are small and unlikely to move prices much, but that the revenue would help Russia pay for the war, the AP reported. Russian state television and pro-Kremlin commentators widely amplified Trump’s weekend call for Ukraine to choose a new president.

Trump played down the reports of Russian violations. He said he was “not sure” about them, that “there’s been violations on both sides” and that Putin “wants to make a deal more than Zelenskyy,” CBS News reported.

Meanwhile, a European official and a Ukrainian official told CBS News that the administration had threatened to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine and to halt European purchases of American weapons for Kyiv unless Ukraine ends its long-range strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. The Financial Times first reported the threats. A Ukrainian official told CBS that Kyiv takes them seriously, because shared intelligence helps track Russian ballistic missile launches and the purchase program is its only route to buying Patriot missiles. The White House did not respond to CBS’s request for comment.

The administration’s view is that halting attacks on refineries and power plants on both sides would protect global fuel supplies and could open the way to broader talks. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski questioned whether Russia could even deliver the promised diesel, noting fuel shortages in Moscow itself, while a Ukrainian lawmaker from Zelensky’s party said the diesel deal looked like a political move ahead of the American midterm elections.