Zelenskyy: Ukraine skipped strikes on Russian energy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine did not strike any energy facilities inside Russia overnight into Oct. 12, after President Donald Trump announced an immediate halt to attacks on energy targets, but that Russia kept hitting Ukraine’s gas and power infrastructure.

Zelenskyy made the comments in a live interview with Fox News on Monday. Trump said on Truth Social on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking each other’s energy facilities. Moscow has not confirmed accepting any such deal, and the exact scope of the proposal is still unclear.

“We didn’t attack any energy objects on the territory of Russia because President Trump said that there will be an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. And we didn’t attack, but Russia attacked our gas stations, energy infrastructure, infrastructure and other things,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He said Kyiv was ready to observe the ceasefire but doubted Moscow was, describing the overnight strikes as Vladimir Putin’s answer to Trump and saying Russia had signaled it knew nothing about an energy ceasefire.

Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Washington, Denys Sienik, said Russian forces hit a power plant in Kyiv, cutting electricity and water, and then struck a thermal power plant in Kharkiv after Trump’s announcement. Sienik said Russia had attacked electricity generation and transmission facilities more than 200 times over the past week. Russia has not commented on those claims.

A White House official told Axios that Trump’s proposal initially focused on stopping attacks on oil refineries, with a broader halt covering power plants and electrical grids possibly to follow. Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign against Russian refineries has been a point of friction with Washington, and Trump has argued the strikes push up fuel prices. Zelenskyy rejected a refinery-only arrangement, saying an energy ceasefire has to cover Ukraine’s power grid, and tied any pause on refinery strikes to Russia doing the same.

“If Russia will not attack our energy, we will not attack the energy,” said Zelenskyy.

He also disputed Trump’s view that Ukrainian strikes are behind higher diesel prices, pointing instead to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. On Friday, Trump announced a deal with Russia to release Russian diesel to the United States and global markets, which critics in Congress say gives Moscow more revenue for the war.

Zelenskyy also responded to Trump’s suggestion over the weekend that Ukraine needs a new president. He said he was ready to hold elections but that Ukraine would need at least 60 days of security for its infrastructure to prepare, given ongoing Russian drone and missile attacks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected the idea of a 60-day pause on Monday, arguing that European countries would use it to rearm Ukraine.

“I don’t think he deserves a respite,” Lavrov said, according to the BBC.

Zelenskyy said he last spoke with Trump in person at the U.N. General Assembly in New York in late September. Russia has not said whether it will stop striking Ukrainian energy facilities.