Ukraine and Russia exchange attacks, hours after Trump-Putin call
Originally Published: 19 MAR 25 04:19 ET
Updated: 19 MAR 25 08:17 ET
By Jessie Yeung, Maria Kostenko and Lauren Kent, CNN
(CNN) — Ukraine and Russia exchanged aerial assaults overnight, just hours after the Kremlin agreed to temporarily halt attacks on energy infrastructure targets, but stopped short of signing off on a broader ceasefire sought by the US.
President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump spoke by phone on Tuesday, with the Russian leader not agreeing to the 30-day truce that Trump has endorsed and Ukraine has agreed to. The White House said a narrower pause on attacking energy targets would go into effect followed by negotiations over a broader ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused Putin of already breaking his pledge, saying that Russia attacked Ukraine with 150 drones overnight, including strikes on energy facilities.
The Kremlin also condemned an overnight attack on an oil facility in Russia, saying it showed Ukraine’s “lack of will” to reach a deal – although Kyiv was not part of the negotiation talks, and no formal agreement has been signed.
Zelensky said Tuesday that while Kyiv supported the pause in attacks on energy targets, he wanted to know the details behind the proposal that Trump and Putin discussed in their bilateral meeting.
“Putin essentially rejected the proposal of a comprehensive ceasefire. It would be right for the world to reject any attempts by Putin to draw out the war,” Zelensky said Tuesday night.
Zelensky later said he would talk with Trump on Wednesday. Further talks are expected to be held Sunday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday.
Overnight, Russia attacked Ukraine with 145 drones, 2 ballistic missiles, and 4 anti-aircraft missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force said Wednesday morning. The attacks targeted the Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Chernihiv regions. 72 drones were shot down, the air force said.
Civilian infrastructure was struck, including a hospital in the eastern Sumy region and an electricity system powering the railways in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, according to officials and Ukraine’s state railway company Ukrzaliznytsya.
Parts of the railway have been left without power, but trains are running as scheduled, the company said.
The attacks killed one person and injured 14 between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a CNN tally of casualty figures shared by Ukrainian officials.
Zelensky said Wednesday that “Putin’s words are at odds with reality” following the overnight strikes. “When Putin said that he was allegedly ordering a halt to strikes on Ukrainian energy, there were 150 drones overnight, including on energy facilities. There were strikes on transportation, unfortunately, two hospitals were hit, and on urban infrastructure,” Zelensky said during a news conference in Finland.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday it had shot down 57 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, with 35 of those intercepted and destroyed over the Kursk border region.
Authorities in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar said a Ukrainian drone had caused a fire at an oil depot near the village of Kavkazskaya, Reuters reported. As of Wednesday morning, more than 200 personnel were on the ground working to extinguish the blaze, Russian officials said.
Putin also said Wednesday that after a series of rapid operations, Russian forces are now “completing” the defeat of Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv launched its shock incursion last August.
Ukraine currently controls about 200 square kilometers (77 square miles) of Russia’s Kursk region at most, according to a Ukrainian commander who has been fighting in Kursk for six months.
Ukraine’s assault regiments are no longer on the attack, but they are still trying to hold positions, the commander of Ukraine’s 225th Separate Assault Regiment Oleh Shyriaiev told CNN on Tuesday.
Trump and Putin ‘trust each other,’ Kremlin says
Putin announced the halt on energy infrastructure attacks on Tuesday after his lengthy call with Trump. “Vladimir Putin responded positively to this initiative and immediately gave the Russian military the corresponding order,” a Kremlin readout said.
As part of its demands for a broader ceasefire, the Kremlin readout laid out several tough conditions that Putin had previously insisted on – such as a halt to all foreign military aid and intelligence to Kyiv, and a halt to any Ukrainian mobilization or rearming during that period.
“I can say with a high degree of confidence that Presidents Putin and Trump understand each other well, trust each other, and intend to gradually move towards normalizing Russian-American relations,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday, following the phone conversation between the leaders.
Peskov added that significant damage was done to US-Russia relations under former President Joe Biden, and restoring them will take time and effort. He also noted that Putin and Trump see “enormous potential” for major economic cooperation projects.
A prisoner swap expected to take place Wednesday will see 175 people exchanged on both sides, according to the Kremlin readout. In addition, it said that 23 seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers would also be transferred.
Zelensky said on Tuesday that this was “a pre-arranged exchange. But in any case, exchanges are great for Ukraine.”
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