Russia strikes Ukrainian power plants hours after Trump announces 'energy ceasefire'

Russian forces attacked energy facilities in Kharkiv and Kyiv on Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials, only hours after President Donald Trump said on social media that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt strikes on energy targets.

A local official told ABC News that the CHP-5 thermal power plant in Kharkiv was hit at least twice and caught fire, 6abc Action News reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed attacks on the Kharkiv plant and on another facility in Kyiv. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Ukraine's presidential office said the Kharkiv strike took place after Trump's post.

Trump's brief message said the ceasefire took effect immediately and that both sides had agreed, but it gave no further details, the Inquirer reported. "Do not break it!" Trump wrote. Moscow had not commented, according to both outlets.

A senior source in Zelenskyy's office told ABC News that the Ukrainian leader learned of the announcement through social media and was surprised by it, 6abc reported. Even so, Zelenskyy said Ukraine welcomed the news and would refrain from hitting Russian energy sites if Russia did the same.

In his evening address, Zelenskyy said Russian drones had filled Ukrainian skies throughout the day and that glide bombs had also been used, according to the Inquirer. "Ukraine wants peace. The question is whether Russia wants it," he said, as reported by 6abc.

Earlier Sunday, in an interview on ABC's "This Week," Zelenskyy said Ukraine would stop striking Russian oil refineries if the Kremlin ended its attacks on Ukraine's power grid, and he asked Trump to pressure Moscow to accept.

The Inquirer noted that Trump made a similar claim on Sept. 14 that the two countries had agreed not to target each other's energy infrastructure, but that proposal did not take hold.

The announcement followed a tense exchange between the two leaders. According to the Inquirer, Trump said Saturday that Ukraine needed a new president and blamed Zelenskyy for high U.S. diesel prices. Zelenskyy responded that Ukraine could organize elections if Russia agreed to a 60-day full ceasefire. Ukraine's constitution bars elections while martial law, in place since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, remains in effect.

The Inquirer also reported that Trump reached a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to buy Russian diesel, a move Ukrainian and European officials criticized as helping fund Russia's war.

Meanwhile, the long-range air war continued. A Ukrainian drone strike on Sunday shut down a data center run by the Russian tech company Yandex in the city of Vladimir, disrupting services across several countries, the Inquirer reported. Zelenskyy said a Russian bombing in Zaporizhzhia on Saturday killed 23 people, including four children.

Compiled by True News from reporting by 6abc Action News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/55