Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin rejects full ceasefire but bombs energy plant hours after promising Trump attacks would stop

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s rejection of a full ceasefire, noting that Moscow’s drones continue to bombard his country hours after Putin’s call with Donald Trump.

“Right now, in many regions, you can literally hear what Russia truly needs. Around 40 “Shahed” drones are in our skies, and air defence is active,” Mr Zelensky said on X.

He confirmed drone hits on civilian infrastructure.

“A direct hit by a ‘Shahed’ drone on a hospital in Sumy, strikes on cities in the Donetsk region, and attack drones currently in the skies over the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions,” Mr Zelensky said.

He added: “Today, Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire. It would be right for the world to respond by rejecting any attempts by Putin to prolong the war.”

Russia is still facing active fighting at its border between Belgorod region and Ukraine, the region’s governor said this morning, a day after Moscow said its forces had thwarted Kyiv’s troops from pushing across the border.

“The situation in Krasnoyarsk district remains difficult,” the governor of the southwestern Russian Belgorod region said in a video posted on his Telegram channel.

Russia’s defence ministry, in a statement reported by Russian news agencies, said Russian forces had thwarted five Ukrainian attempts to push across the border into its southwestern Belgorod region.

Donald Trump has said Washington and Moscow have already begun discussing “dividing up certain assets” between Ukraine and Russia as part of a deal to end the conflict.

He said before his call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that control of land and power plants would be part of the conversation, which came on the anniversary of Russia annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula 11 years ago. That bold land grab by Russia set the stage for Russia to invade its neighbor in 2022.

But neither the White House nor Kremlin made any mention of land or power plants in their post-call statements.

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday suggested that US and Russian officials have discussed the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — in southern Ukraine. Russian troops seized the plant early in the war and it has been caught in the crossfire, fueling fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.

The plant is a significant asset, producing nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s electricity in the year before the war.

Russian forces launched a major air raid on energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Slovyansk city late last night, just hours after the Russian leader told Donald Trump he would pause such attacks.

Shortly after the call between Trump and Vladimir Putin ended last night, air raid sirens wailed and explosions rang out in Ukraine.

Military officials told the Kyiv Post that Russia’s airstrikes left the entire city of 100,000 people without electricity.

Mr Putin had told Mr Trump in a phone call earlier on Tuesday that he would temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities and claimed to have issued orders along these lines.

The strike on Slovyansk’s energy infrastructure was carried out using an aerial bomb, Ukrainian military correspondent Bohdan Miroshnykov said.

US envoy Steve Witkoff has said talks with Russia on the Ukraine war will take place on Sunday in Jeddah.

“The devil is in the details. We’ve got a team going to Saudi Arabia, led by our national security adviser and our secretary of state, and I think, you know, we’ve got to figure out those details,” Mr Witkoff told Fox News’ “Hannity” show last night, referring to top US diplomat Marco Rubio and White House national security adviser Mike Waltz.

A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a small fire at an oil depot located near the village of Kavkazskaya in the Krasnodar region, Russian regional authorities said this morning.

Officials claimed that no one was injured in the fire that spread across 20 square metres (215 square feet). But 30 employees were evacuated, the administration of the southern Russian region said on Telegram.

“The work at the facility has been suspended,” the administration said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky remains sceptical that Vladimir Putin is ready for peace as Russian forces continue to pound Ukraine.

“This is not a game where only Putin dictates the rules,” Zelensky said, making clear he remains doubtful that the Russian president was serious about wanting peace.

Shortly after the call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin ended, air raid alerts sounded in Kyiv, followed by explosions in the city.

Local officials urged people to seek shelter.