Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to halt US arms supplies and intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, while the president’s newly announced “energy ceasefire” with Russia appeared to collapse almost immediately.
US officials made a series of calls to their Nato counterparts warning that Washington could stop providing military equipment and intelligence to Kyiv, according to reports. The threats came as Trump announced the ceasefire on Truth Social without, apparently, informing either Ukraine or Russia.
A Russian bombing raid on a power plant in Kharkiv followed the announcement. Moscow has not commented on the reported attack.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said the ceasefire announcement had come as a surprise. “It was news for me,” he told Axios.
After the bombing, Mr Zelensky said: “It’s clear Putin doesn’t read Truth Social,” according to the BBC.
Trump’s Russian diesel deal draws condemnation
The developments have added to concern in Europe and the US over the direction of President Trump’s policy towards the war in Ukraine. His administration is also pursuing a deal to buy previously sanctioned Russian diesel, prompting criticism from politicians on both sides of the Atlantic.
Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, described the proposed arrangement as “sickening”. Members of the US Congress have also expressed dismay at the deal.
The pressure comes as Ukrainian industry continues to operate under sustained attack. Yuriy Ryzhenkov, chief executive of Ukraine’s largest steelmaker, Metinvest, said the blockade of the country’s seaports was now more severe than it had been in 2022.
More than 8,000 of Metinvest’s 33,700 employees are serving in Ukraine’s armed forces, while its factories have repeatedly been hit by Russian strikes. Hundreds of employees have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“We’ve been hit numerous times. Our facilities have been hit over the last four and a half years, and even though we were restoring them after every hit, you lose. You get weaker with every such attack,” Mr Ryzhenkov said.
