Kremlin refuses to say when halt on Ukraine energy strikes set to end

MOSCOW (AFP): The Kremlin on Wednesday declined to specify when a 30-day moratorium on strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure would end — or whether it would be extended — just hours before the agreement was set to expire.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on March 18 he had ordered his army to halt attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days, though Kyiv has accused Moscow of firing at those type of sites on multiple occasions since.

“We’ll keep you informed. I am not yet ready to tell you what decision has been made,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked to state the exact time that Putin’s order was due to expire.

The Kremlin said Putin issued the halt on strikes after a phone call with US President Donald Trump.

A week later, US officials held separate talks with Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Saudi Arabia, after which the White House said both sides had agreed to “develop measures” to implement an “agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities of Russia and Ukraine.”

No formal agreement between Moscow and Kyiv was put in place and there are competing accounts of when each side’s commitment to stop such strikes came into force.

Both Ukraine and Russia have consistently accused each other of continuing to strike energy targets since then.