Zelenskyy Rules Out Energy Ceasefire Until Russia Halts Strikes
Ukraine's president says Kyiv will only stop attacking Russian energy targets if Moscow does the same and the US guarantees it, after Donald Trump claimed both sides had agreed to a truce that neither had confirmed.
Ukraine will not halt strikes on Russian energy infrastructure unless Moscow commits to doing the same and Washington guarantees the arrangement, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, pushing back on an unverified claim by Donald Trump that both sides had already agreed to such a ceasefire.
Zelenskyy said no genuine willingness to end the war had been visible from Russia so far. He indicated that Kyiv would take its own de-escalatory steps only if American partners could secure a credible, long-term Russian commitment to stop a war aimed at destroying lives. Russia would also need to stop attacking Ukraine's critical infrastructure for its intentions to be taken seriously, he suggested.
The US president regularly claims to have brokered deals between foreign adversaries that turn out to be nonexistent or extremely short-lived. Neither Ukraine nor Russia had confirmed any energy ceasefire at the time of the statements, leaving the arrangement unverified despite the public assertion from Washington.
The exchange comes amid a wider dispute over fuel prices. Trump sought to blame diesel shortages and high costs on Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil refineries. The principal cause, however, is his own confrontation with Iran, whose retaliation has disrupted the trade in Middle East oil. Russia has banned diesel exports to address severe domestic shortages caused by Ukrainian attacks, though those exports account for only a fraction of global supply. The disruption falls most heavily on neighbouring countries, including central Asian states such as Mongolia, which depend on Russian producers.
On the ground, a Nato fighter jet shot down a drone in Lithuania shortly after midnight on Tuesday, according to the national crisis management centre. The drone, which probably entered from Belarus, was brought down near Pratkunai village in southern Lithuania, close to the city of Kaunas. Its origin had yet to be determined. A drone alert was issued earlier in the capital, Vilnius, and the surrounding region.
In Ukraine, a Russian attack on a farming warehouse killed three people in the town of Pryluky in the northern Chernihiv region, regional police said. Seven others were injured.
German prosecutors have charged a German-Ukrainian woman with acting on behalf of Russian intelligence. Identified as Ilona W in line with German privacy rules, she is accused of being in contact with an intelligence officer at the Russian embassy in Berlin since at least October 2023. The defendant ran a marketing agency in Berlin and chaired a lobbying group, using those networks to bring the intelligence officer into high-profile events and to try to recruit German defence officials and industry figures.
Britain's defence ministry said a member of the UK armed forces was killed in a crash in Ukraine on Saturday. The incident is understood not to have resulted from hostile action. A small number of British personnel in Ukraine provide security for diplomats and support the Ukrainian armed forces.
Zelenskyy has formally dismissed Ukraine's prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, whose office is embroiled in a bribery scandal. The president announced the sacking in a government decree. Kravchenko, who has denied the allegations but resigned on 7 September, posted that he is now outside Ukraine and has begun legal action against the head of the national anti-corruption bureau, Nabu, accusing him of falsifying official documents. Nabu investigators raided the prosecutor general's offices and said they had uncovered a network that made payments in return for protecting fraudulent call centres that had laundered fortunes.
