KYIV: Ukraine on Wednesday (Mar 19) accused Russia of successfully rejecting a United States-backed ceasefire proposal, reporting a barrage of strikes on civilian infrastructure hours after Moscow agreed solely to pause attacks on the energy grid.
Washington has been pushing for a full, 30-day ceasefire as a primary step in direction of a wider settlement of the grinding three-year-old struggle.
However in a 90-minute call with Donald Trump on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin refused, insisting that any such deal could be contingent on the West halting all army support for Ukraine.
In keeping with the Kremlin, Putin has already ordered his army to pause strikes towards Ukrainian power targets for 30 days.
The extremely anticipated Putin-Trump name additionally resulted within the announcement that Russia and Ukraine will alternate 175 prisoners every on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy welcomed the proposed power truce however stated he wanted extra “particulars” from Washington.
US envoy Steve Witkoff stated ceasefire talks would decide up once more on Sunday in Jeddah, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Nationwide Safety Advisor Mike Waltz main the American delegation.
Moscow has launched devastating assaults on Ukraine’s power infrastructure all through the struggle, whereas Ukraine has used drones to bomb a number of Russian oil installations.
Explosions rang out and air raid sirens wailed in Ukraine simply hours after Trump and Putin spoke.
Zelenskyy stated “there have been hits, particularly on civilian infrastructure”, together with a hospital in Sumy.
“It’s some of these nighttime assaults by Russia that destroy our power sector, our infrastructure, and the traditional lifetime of Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy stated.
“At this time, Putin successfully rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire.”
Throughout the border, Russian emergency service officers stated particles from a repelled Ukrainian drone assault ignited a fireplace at an oil depot within the village of Kavkazskaya
