Russia, Ukraine trade accusations of infrastructure attacks after Putin-Trump call

Putin agreed to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire

Russia and Ukraine accused each other early on Wednesday (March 19, 2025) of launching air attacks that sparked fires and damaged infrastructure just hours after President Vladimir Putin agreed to a limited ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine.

Mr. Putin agreed to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire, coming well short of what U.S. President Donald Trump sought as the first step toward a permanent peace deal.

Mr. Zelenskyy, who had agreed to the full 30-day ceasefire, said after the Putin-Trump call that he would support the limited ceasefire, but urged the world to block any attempts by Moscow to drag out the war.

Hours later both sides reported attacks.

“Russia is attacking civilian infrastructure and people - right now,” Andriy Yermak, Mr. Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said overnight on Telegram.

Hospital, oil depots attacked

Regional authorities in Sumy in northeast Ukraine said that Russia's drone attacks damaged two hospitals there, causing no injuries but forcing the evacuation of patients and hospital staff.

A 60-year-old man was injured and several houses damaged in Russian drone attack on the Kyiv region that surrounds the Ukrainian capital, Mykola Kalashnyk, governor of the region, said early on Wednesday.

Mr. Zelenskyy said that Russia launched more than 40 drones against Ukraine in the hours following the call between Trump and Putin.

Authorities in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar said early on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a small fire at an oil depot located near the village of Kavkazskaya.

No one was injured in the fire, which spread across 20 square metres (215 square feet), but 30 employees were evacuated, the administration of the southern Russian region said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

"The work at the facility has been suspended," the administration said.

The Russian SHOT news Telegram posted a video of blazes at night at what seemed like an industrial area.

SHOT said the Kavkazskaya oil transshipment point is an important facility designed to transport Russian oil for exports railway and into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline system.

Reuters could not independently verify the SHOT report.

Russia's aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said that it was suspending flights from airports Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhnekamsk, Russia, all hundreds kilometres east of Moscow, to "ensure air safety".

The agency did not say what was the reason for the suspension, but it usually suspends flights when there are reports of drone attacks.

Published - March 19, 2025 09:52 am IST