Zelensky vows response if Russia ignores ‘energy ceasefire’

WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that his country would retaliate if Moscow did not agree to the “energy ceasefire” that United States President Donald Trump unilaterally announced at the weekend.

“If Russia does not agree to an energy ceasefire, we will respond,” Zelensky told the Warsaw Security Forum via videolink.

Trump sowed confusion when he announced an energy ceasefire between the two warring countries without providing details, sparking astonishment in Kyiv, silence from Moscow and support from Ukraine’s Western allies.

“We are waiting for the details of the conversation between the Americans and the Russians, and we are waiting to see what specific steps the Americans are ready to take,” Zelensky said.

Trump’s announcement on Sunday came two days after he declared a temporary easing of US sanctions on Russian diesel, prompting outrage by European allies and Kyiv, who said it would only embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If Russia wants us to stop our long-range strikes against its oil refineries and oil exports, then Russia must stop its strikes against our energy system and critical infrastructure and stop killing our people,” Zelensky said.

Trump has previously taken to his Truth Social account to announce truces or other arrangements before either Kyiv or Moscow confirmed them.

“An energy ceasefire and other steps to reduce escalation and guarantee security are truly needed here in reality, not just on Truth Social,” Zelensky said.

New sanctions

Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) on Monday formally added almost 1,600 new individuals and entities to its sanctions blacklist over Russia’s war on Ukraine, in a bid to keep pressure on Moscow.

“This is the single largest expansion of our sanctions list since Russia started its war,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote online.

“Europe is again showing a united front. More than half are connected to the production chain for ballistic missiles,” she said.

“We are making it significantly harder, slower and more expensive for Russia to produce the weapons it uses to kill Ukrainians,” she added.

Ukraine and its European backers have been left reeling by a decision from Trump last week to lift sanctions on Russian diesel as part of a deal to supply the US.

The measures will take the EU’s sanctions blacklist on Russia — which includes key figures like Putin — up to some 3,500 listings.

EU countries are still smarting over a push from France and Luxembourg last month that saw sanctions lifted on prominent Russian billionaires Alisher Umanov and Mikhail Fridman.

That move — which in Usmanov’s case was linked to a French prisoner release deal in Azerbaijan — drew stinging criticism from Kyiv.

Alongside its blacklist on individuals and entities — the 27-nation EU has also imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on swathes of Russia’s economy.

But there is fear that momentum is running out on new sweeping sanctions as EU countries increasingly struggle to agree targets that do not harm their own economies too much.