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Trump Claims Energy Ceasefire as Russia Keeps Attacking
Trump announced Russia and Ukraine agreed to halt energy strikes, but Zelenskyy said he wasn't consulted and Russian forces attacked power plants hours later.
What happened
President Trump declared on Truth Social on Sunday, October 11, that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an 'energy ceasefire' effective immediately, with both parties having agreed to stop attacking each other's energy infrastructure. He offered no details or evidence of prior negotiations.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said Trump's announcement caught him off guard. 'The announcement was news for me,' Zelenskyy told Axios, though he added Ukraine would support an energy ceasefire if Russia agreed. He said Ukraine was 'awaiting details from the American side' and emphasized Kyiv's consistent willingness to halt strikes on Russian refineries if Moscow ceased attacks on Ukraine's power grid.
Within hours of Trump's announcement, Russian forces struck multiple Ukrainian energy targets. The Kharkiv CHP-5 thermal power plant was hit at least twice, causing a fire. Zelenskyy confirmed the attacks in his evening address, noting that Iranian-designed drones and glide bombs targeted energy infrastructure despite Trump's declaration. A subsequent strike on a nearby grocery store killed three people.
Moscow issued no formal confirmation of any ceasefire agreement. An official from Russia's Duma Energy Commission suggested Trump might be making unsubstantiated claims to affect oil prices. The announcement echoed a similar unconfirmed claim Trump made in September; both sides continued attacking energy targets afterward. The context includes Trump's recent decision to ease sanctions on Russian diesel exports and subsequent tensions with Zelenskyy over Ukraine's targeting of Russian refineries amid a global diesel shortage.
Chanakya's Move
Trump appears to be signaling to energy markets (and potentially to Putin) a willingness to broker deals that favor Russian interests—earlier easing sanctions on diesel, now announcing ceasefires without confirmation. The move could be a bet that market psychology around ceasefire *announcements* itself could dampen oil prices, even if the ceasefire itself never materializes. For Putin, the utility is ambiguous: he gets sanctions relief and positive messaging from Trump without committing to restraint (as Moscow's immediate attacks show). For Zelenskyy, the exposure reveals Trump's focus on energy prices over Ukrainian military leverage, and the unilateral nature of the announcement—bypassing Kyiv entirely—signals Washington may negotiate terms of war without Ukrainian input. The counter-move available to Ukraine is to highlight the violations and demand details, which Zelenskyy has done, reasserting that any ceasefire requires Russia's actual compliance, not just Trump's declarations.