Putin Rains Missiles on Trump’s Ceasefire in Embarrassing Snub
Reuters Vladimir Putin has delivered a humiliating snub to Donald Trump by raining bombs on Ukraine’s energy sector, days after the president boasted he’d brokered a ceasefire.
Trump said his goons engineered an “energy ceasefire” between Moscow and Kyiv last week, which would pause attacks from both sides on critical infrastructure.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he didn’t know about the truce, and the Kremlin said it wouldn’t take part.
Moscow made good on that commitment on Tuesday night, launching a massive bombardment with missiles and drones on energy facilities in the cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv, as well as the capital’s surrounding regions.
“Overnight, the Russians used 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 attack drones and loitering munitions against our energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, the Kyiv region, and Kharkiv,” Zelensky said on X .
“A targeted Russian ballistic missile strike specifically against energy infrastructure—the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American President.” He said the strikes had left 600,000 people without power, taken lives, and damaged 26 energy facilities, but had also served as a show of disrespect to Washington, D.C.
“The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale,” he said.
“Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States.
Russia does not consider the American President’s statements strong.” It came a day after Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said Ukraine didn’t deserve the “respite” a ceasefire would offer.
Trump handed Putin a stunning reprieve from sanctions on his energy sector last week.
Russia is the world’s third-largest exporter of refined fossil fuel products and relies on the cash it generates to fund the war in Ukraine.
On Friday, Trump ended pressure on Russia’s economy built by the ban, saying he planned to import $4.5 billion of Russian diesel to ease soaring prices at the pump in the U.S.
“Russia has squandered the opportunity for de-escalation and has clearly chosen to continue its insane war of annihilation,” Zelensky continued.
“We ask President Trump to impose STRONG sanctions on Russia, especially since the Lindsey Graham bill, which was recently passed and signed into law, authorizes and regulates such measures.” Relations between D.C. and Kyiv also had another question mark overhead after Elon Musk’s Starlink announced it would limit some of its services in Ukraine.
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