Zelenskyy says he will talk to Trump as Russia, Ukraine report overnight strikes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday said he would hold talks with White House leader Donald Trump, as Moscow and Kyiv reported overnight attacks hours after the Kremlin agreed to a Washington-brokered partial ceasefire.  

“Today I will have contact with President Trump. We will discuss the details of the next steps with him. We really had a good meeting of our teams in Jeddah. I think everything went well, if not for Russia, which is always not happy when something goes right,” Zelenskyy said Wednesday during a news conference in Helsinki, according to Google-translated comments carried by Ukrainian outlet Ukrinform.  

Moscow and Kyiv had appeared to hit a breakthrough on Tuesday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin acceded to a U.S.-negotiated immediate ceasefire against specific targets — a narrower truce than what Trump initially discussed with Zelenskyy, but a first step to dialing down the fighting that has devastated Ukraine for more than three years.

“We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post after his Tuesday call with Putin, stressing the agreement was a precursor for broader negotiations for a permanent ceasefire set to kick off in the Middle East.

Yet Moscow and Kyiv both reported ongoing hostilities within hours of the truce, with the Kremlin accusing Ukraine of targeting an oil depot in the Krasnodar region in a drone attack that followed the Trump-Putin conversation, according to a Google-translated Telegram update from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin saw no reciprocity from Kyiv to observe the 30-day ceasefire, which it stressed only concerns energy facilities and no other forms of infrastructure, in Google-translated comments carried by Russian state outlet Tass.

In Ukraine, regional authorities in the northeastern region of Sumy said in a Google-translated Telegram update that local hospital buildings sustained damage during “massive air attacks” by Russian drones. Kyiv officials meanwhile reported 18 residences, 20 townhouse apartments and 19 vehicles were harmed during  an overnight attack, with Zelenskyy calling for further pressure on Russia in a Google-translated social media post.

“It is such night attacks by Russia that destroy our energy, our infrastructure, the normal life of Ukrainians. And the fact that this night was no exception indicates that we must continue to put pressure on Russia for the sake of peace,” he said.

The reports of hostilities lay bare the fragility of trust between the war parties amid analysts’ doubts that Moscow will commit to peace even under the aegis of Washington’s brokerage.

Both sides have sought to secure the mercurial favor of Trump, who broke away from his predecessor Joe Biden’s administration by defrosting relations with an isolated Kremlin earlier this year — while briefly interrupting military support for Ukraine following a heated White House clash with Zelenskyy. Since then, the U.S. and Ukraine have agreed ceasefire terms that pend Russia’s buy-in.

Moscow’s previous demands have included Ukraine’s surrender of four regions illegally annexed throughout the conflict and Kyiv’s renouncement of its ambitions to join the NATO alliance, which the Kremlin names as a threat to its security. Kyiv has meanwhile hesitated to make territorial concessions and instead requested security guarantees that Russia will not resume its offensive at a later time.

“The persistence of Putin’s demands for Ukraine’s capitulation demonstrates that Putin is not interested in good-faith negotiations to pursue Trump’s stated goal of achieving a lasting peace in Ukraine,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Wednesday, adding it “continues to assess that Putin is attempting to hold the temporary ceasefire proposal hostage in order to extract preemptive concessions ahead of formal negotiations to end the war.”