KYIV (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Russian artillery had damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the front-line city of Kherson, two days after the U.S. announced that each side had agreed to a truce on energy strikes.
“Two days ago, there was a night when there were no strikes on the energy sector, today energy infrastructure in the city of Kherson was damaged by Russian artillery,” Zelenskiy said in Paris. “I believe that the U.S. should respond with actions.”
The United States announced separate agreements with Kyiv and Moscow on Tuesday to pause attacks in the Black Sea and against each other’s energy installations, the first such deal since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.
“Our side, as long as no one understands who is monitoring what …, all this (evidence) will be prepared and transferred to the U.S., and after that we are waiting for America’s reaction, since they told us that they will respond to violations,” Zelenskiy said after a summit of Ukraine’s allies in the French capital.
Kherson regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said work was continuing to restore power to consumers who had been left without supply as a result of Russian shelling.
Moscow accused Kyiv on Wednesday of using drones to attack energy facilities in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions, and in the occupied Crimean peninsula.
The Ukrainian military denied those accusations.
“The (Russian) military continues to produce fakes, seeking to make baseless accusations against Ukraine and prolong the war,” the military said in a statement on the Telegram app.
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and now holds about 20% of the country, contends that it has observed an energy strike truce since March 18. Ukraine says Russia has attacked eight Ukrainian energy facilities since that date.
Zelenskiy also said in Paris he believed the Trump administration’s stance towards Russia should be tougher, adding Ukraine needed Washington’s help to be strong in negotiations.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; writing by Max Hunder and Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Heavens and Mark Heinrich)
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