Ukraine still targeting Russian energy infrastructure – MOD — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union
Kiev is doing everything to sabotage steps by Moscow and Washington to settle the Ukraine conflict, the Defense Ministry has said
Ukraine continues to target Russian energy infrastructure despite claims by Vladimir Zelensky that he accepts an agreement between Moscow and Washington to halt such attacks, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.
The Ukrainian military has made at least three attempts to strike Russian energy facilities over the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Overnight, two Ukrainian drones were shot down by air defenses off the Tarkhankut Peninsula in Russia’s Crimea, the statement read. The UAVs were targeting the Glebovskoye underground gas storage facility, it added.
Also on Wednesday, consumers in a district of Kursk Region were left without electricity after a high-voltage power line was disconnected as a result of a drone attack on an energy facility, according to the ministry.
Another UAV strike on Russian energy infrastructure in Kursk Region on Tuesday led to disruptions of electricity supply that affected around 4,000 people, it added.
The ministry stressed that the attacks are happening “despite a public statement by Zelensky about accepting the Russian-American agreements reached in Riyadh on March 24 to stop attacks on civilian energy facilities.”
“By continuing to deliver damage to Russia’s civilian energy infrastructure, the Kiev regime is, in fact, doing everything to disrupt the Russian-American agreements on implementing step-by-step measures to resolve the Ukrainian conflict,” the statement read.
The suspension of strikes on energy infrastructure by Moscow and Kiev was agreed following a phone call last week between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump.
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After the talks between Russian and US experts in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Monday, Moscow published a list of energy facilities covered by the deal, which includes oil and gas processing and storage facilities, electricity producing and distribution sites, nuclear power plants, and dams of hydroelectric plants. The pause took effect on March 18 and will last for 30 days, according to the Russian side.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Zelensky expressed readiness to observe the Trump-proposed agreement to mutually halt attacks on energy facilities with Russia as well as to stop fighting in the Black Sea.
“We do not hit their energy. They do not hit our energy. I think there will be a million questions and details, but today it sounds like this: each side does not use the corresponding weaponry against the energy of both sides,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia intends to continue to uphold the moratorium on strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure despite repeated violations by Kiev.
