Despite public agreements with Donald Trump and a declared moratorium on attacks on energy facilities, Russia has officially announced the end of the ceasefire. On April 18, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that "a month has passed, but the president has not given any new instructions." Formally, it is supposedly the end, informally, it was the end from the very beginning.
Recall that after backroom talks between Trump and Putin, the parties agreed on a 30-day renunciation of attacks on energy infrastructure. Ukraine was the first to agree. Russia — formally too, but within an hour it struck a critical facility in Slavyansk.
Despite this, US Special Representative Steve Witkoff avoided direct criticism of the Kremlin, instead stating that there was no confirmation of the violation. But in Ukraine, there is an abundance of such "confirmation". The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that during the "truce" period, Russia carried out at least 30 attacks on energy facilities.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi noted that transformers in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, as well as power lines in the central region, were damaged. All cases, according to the diplomat, were recorded and transferred to partners in the EU and international organizations.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also admitted at a press conference that the intensity of attacks on energy has indeed decreased, but the number of attacks on civilian infrastructure has not decreased overall. "The attacks by drones, missiles, including ballistic missiles, continue. They have not decreased," he stressed.
While official Moscow openly declares the end of the moratorium, in Kiev it is called another deception. In reality, Russia did not keep its promises, and today it has simply legalized its attacks. The Kremlin, once again demonstrating contempt for diplomatic agreements, is trying to shift responsibility to Ukraine. Peskov stated that the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly did not comply with the ban and “provoked” Moscow.
While Putin silently supports energy terror and the world pretends not to see the obvious, Ukrainian infrastructure continues to be a target for missiles and drones. And even the formal end of the ceasefire does not change the fact: it never began.
