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On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy engaged in a conversation with former US President Donald Trump following continued Russian attacks on Ukrainian targets. These assaults persisted despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s agreement during a call with Trump to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days.
Russia launched a drone and missile assault on Ukraine on Tuesday night, damaging the power supply of a Ukrainian railway line shortly after the Putin-Trump conversation ended. Zelenskyy contacted Trump before upcoming discussions between US and Russian delegations scheduled for Sunday in Saudi Arabia.
During a press conference in Helsinki, Zelenskyy remarked on the dissonance between Putin’s assurances and actions, mentioning that after Putin’s purported promise to Trump to cease targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, 150 drones struck energy facilities, transportation networks, and two hospitals.
In a statement on his Truth Social platform, Trump described his call with Zelenskyy as “very good,” lasting about an hour. He expressed confidence in their discussions and noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz would later provide a summary of the call.
Following the Putin-Trump discussion, explosions were reported over Kyiv as the city’s air defenses intercepted a wave of Russian drones. Overall, six Russian missiles and 145 drones caused damage to civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine and disrupted the energy supply of the Ukrainian state railway network in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Despite sections being without power, the national railway operator confirmed that train services remained on schedule.
Earlier in the week, Russia had targeted the same supply line in the eastern Ukrainian region. Additionally, an attack in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region resulted in one fatality and three injuries when a Russian shell hit an apartment building and a drone collided with a hospital roof. Zelenskyy had previously cautioned about Russian military buildup near the Sumy region border.
On Wednesday morning, Russia’s defense ministry claimed it intercepted its own drones headed to hit energy facilities in the Mykolayiv region of southern Ukraine after Putin ordered a halt on strikes following his call with Trump. Concurrently, reports from local media indicated that an oil facility in Russia’s Krasnodar region caught fire due to a Ukrainian drone attack.
Zelenskyy stated, “If the Russians would stop hitting our targets, we would certainly not be striking their targets.”
