Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of breaking ceasefire terms protecting energy sites

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of breaking the terms of a tentative U.S.-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, underscoring the challenges to negotiating a broader peace in the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry alleged that Ukrainian drone attacks hit an electric facility in the Bryansk region early Wednesday and a power grid facility in the Kursk region on Tuesday, leading to a power cut affecting thousands of people.

“The Kyiv regime is doing everything to derail the Russian-U.S. agreements on the gradual settlement of the Ukrainian conflict,” the ministry said Wednesday.

Ukraine’s General Staff denied the allegations, saying in a statement Wednesday that Russia’s claims were part of a broader disinformation campaign aimed at justifying continued hostilities.

The accusations came hours after Washington announced Tuesday that it had reached a tentative agreement with Ukraine and Russia to implement a pause on attacks on energy sites as well as taking steps to ensure safe navigation for ships in the Black Sea. The deal followed three days of separate U.S-Ukrainian and U.S.-Russian talks in the Saudi capital.

Those talks were part of efforts by the Trump administration to implement a limited, 30-day ceasefire that Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week. The pause has thus far failed to materialize as both sides continue to launch drone and rocket attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Ukraine had agreed with U.S. negotiators in Riyadh “that a ceasefire for energy infrastructure can start today” and expressed his country’s willingness to comply with the agreement while warning Russia would face “strong retaliation” if it attacked Ukrainian energy facilities.

Ukrainian officials have contested claims by the Kremlin that Russian forces have not attacked energy sites in Ukraine since March 18. In a post on X on Tuesday, Zelensky’s communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said Moscow was “lying” about observing a ceasefire on energy infrastructure.

“They’ve been hitting our energy sites with bombs, attack drones, and FPV drones. We’re not going into all the details, but there have already been eight confirmed hits on energy facilities,” Lytvyn wrote. “Every night our air defense forces shoot down nearly a hundred attack drones — and many of those drones were likely targeting other energy facilities.”

Russia links the Black Sea deal to sanctions relief

On Tuesday, the White House said in separate statements that the sides had “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”

Details of the prospective deal were not released, but it appeared to mark another attempt to ensure safe Black Sea shipping after a 2022 agreement that was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey but halted by Russia the next year.

After the White House issued its statement Tuesday, the Kremlin warned that a potential Black Sea deal could only be implemented after sanctions against the Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial organizations involved in food and fertilizer trade are lifted and their access to the SWIFT system of international payments is ensured.

Zelensky described the demands as an example of Moscow “manipulating, twisting agreements, and lying” about the terms of the agreement.

“There are absolutely clear statements that have been published by the White House, everyone can see what is stated there,” Zelensky said. “And there is something that the Kremlin is lying about again: that supposedly the [ceasefire] in the Black Sea depends on the issue of sanctions.”

In an apparent reference to Moscow’s demands, the White House said Tuesday that the U.S. “will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions.”

When asked about when Washington might help Moscow achieve those ambitions, Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Wednesday that contacts between Russia and the U.S. “continue quite intensively,” and that authorities are “satisfied with how pragmatic, constructive and productive our dialogue is.”

Peskov said the 2022 Black Sea Grain initiative could be revived if Russia’s demands regarding agricultural and fertilizer exports are met. He said that those are the same demands that Russia initially put forward in the grain deal and that weren’t being fulfilled.

Russia launches drone attack on Zelensky’s hometown

Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown, came under the “most massive kamikaze drone attack since the beginning of the war” on Tuesday night, the city administration head, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on Telegram.

Although no one was killed or injured, civilian infrastructure including warehouses, an administration building and a fire station was widely targeted, Vikul said. Multiple fires were sparked across the city, he said.

“Everyone is alive, thank God. It’s truly a miracle. The destruction is significant,” Vilkul said.

Civilian infrastructure also came under strike in the Sumy, Cherkasy, and Kirovohrad regions, local authorities said. There were no immediate reports on any injuries.

Overall, Russian forces launched 117 Shahed and decoy drones overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday morning, adding that 56 drones were destroyed and 48 more jammed by the defense forces.

Novikov and Arhirova write for the Associated Press. AP writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.