Ukraine-Russia war, what we know about the energy truce announced by Trump

The last hours on the Ukrainian front were marked by Donald Trump's announcement on an energy truce between Kiev and Moscow (UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR, LIVE UPDATES), greeted by coldness on the part of the Kremlin and by the mockery of the Ukrainian leader, who shortly before had thrown down a real gauntlet to the occupant of the White House both on the elections in Ukraine and on the stop to the raids against Russian refineries, which the tycoon claims to the point of threatening to cut off arms supplies to Kiev. "Effective immediately, an energy truce is in force in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Both sides have agreed. Don't violate it," Trump wrote with great fanfare on his social network Truth, a post also relaunched by the official Russian agency Tass.

Silence from Moscow, Zelensky ironic: "New for me"

After several hours, however, there was no comment on the same agency, no trace of a confirmation or denial, just silence. "The announcement of the ceasefire was news to me", Zelensky underlined ironically: "If President Trump has negotiated it with Putin please tell us when the ceasefire will start, we are ready and will accept it", he added, a few hours before denouncing a violation of the truce by Moscow which would have been repeated also this morning. The Ukrainian leader, moreover, had already hammered Washington: "With all due respect to Trump, it is up to the Ukrainians to choose their own leader", he had thundered in the aftermath of the American president's outbursts, also saying he was ready to organize elections if there was a "60-day" ceasefire with Russia.

Axios: "Russia has not accepted any kind of truce"

The Kremlin's failure to accept the truce was revealed quickly, albeit unofficially. As reported by Axios, the 'refinery by refinery' proposal that Trump referred to in his Truth post is "unbalanced" because Ukraine has a single oil refinery that has been attacked several times by the Russians and is not fully operational. Russia, on the other hand, has a large number of refineries. "Trump seems to be trying to make a partial truce a reality by leveraging his will. For the moment, however, Russia has not accepted any form of ceasefire, while Ukraine is calling for one that bans attacks on power plants," Axios explained. The White House has warned that Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries are damaging relations between Zelensky and Trump. The president "is furious. He thinks Zelensky takes America for granted," one official said.

Kiev proposes to stop the raids if Russia stops the attacks

However, Zelensky also wanted to send an olive branch to Trump, saying he was available to stop attacks on energy oil refineries but only in an agreement that provides for the mutual Russian stoppage of raids against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and underlining that "Putin doesn't want to do it". In the challenge with the White House, the Ukrainian president has meanwhile received the support of the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who expressed her full solidarity with him, and that of Great Britain, France, Germany and Poland. Telephone conversations also took place with the leaders of Canada, Finland and NATO.

Kallas: "The energy truce is good but Russia must respect it

The EU High Representative Kaja Kallas also expressed her opinion on the hypothesis, currently only on paper, of an energy truce when arriving at the Foreign Affairs Council of Luxembourg. "We welcome the truce in the energy sector, provided it is respected. We have not yet seen whether Russia will also respect it," Kallas said. "Of course, on a personal level, I would also like the truce to apply to people, that no people would be killed. We should put pressure on Russia to end the war. Because if he stops, even Ukrainians will not have to take any measures to defend their country."