Helsinki (TDI): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would speak to President Donald Trump on Wednesday and urged the US to monitor a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia which he said Russian President Vladimir Putin had already ignored.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Wednesday of launching air strikes that damaged infrastructure just hours after their presidents agreed in principle to a limited ceasefire to halt attacks on energy infrastructure.
Zelenskyy, in a joint briefing in Helsinki with Finnish President Alexander Stubb, stated Putin’s words were not enough and that Kyiv would provide a list of energy facilities it hopes Washington and allies would help monitor.
“I really want there to be control. But I think that the main agent of this control should be the US,” he said, adding that Ukraine is ready to commit to a ceasefire.
“If the Russians will not strike our facilities, then we will definitely not strike theirs,” Zelenskyy said.
Moscow said on Wednesday that it had halted its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure after a Tuesday phone conversation between Putin and Trump and had shot down its own Ukraine-bound drones while they were in the air.
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In the call, Putin agreed to stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities temporarily but declined to endorse a full thirty-day ceasefire that the US President hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace agreement.
However, Ukrainian authorities said on Wednesday that Russian drones had damaged two hospitals in the northeastern Sumy area and railway infrastructure in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
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Zelenskyy said the strike, which the air force said involved 145 drones, showed “Putin’s words are very different from reality” and urged for sustained Western military assistance to Ukraine.
