Zelensky urges Russia to stop strikes on energy infrastructure
Mr Zelensky told reporters that Kyiv was prepared to mirror any such step if Moscow stopped targeting Ukraine’s energy network.
With the war’s economic shockwaves still rippling through energy markets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Russia to agree to a reciprocal pause in strikes on energy infrastructure, arguing that such a move could help calm pressure on global oil prices.
Mr Zelensky told reporters that Kyiv was prepared to mirror any such step if Moscow stopped targeting Ukraine’s energy network.
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“If Russia is ready to stop hitting Ukrainian energy facilities, we will not respond against their energy sector,” he said.
He said some of Ukraine’s partners had suggested Kyiv might reduce its long-range attacks on Russian oil installations. Mr Zelensky also said Ukraine would consider a ceasefire arrangement in the eastern part of the country.
Elsewhere, relations between Russia and the UK deteriorated further after Moscow ordered the expulsion of a British diplomat on espionage allegations.
Britain rejected the claims as “completely unacceptable” and said it would not accept threats or intimidation directed at embassy personnel or their families.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, alleged that the diplomat, identified as Albertus Gerhardus Janse van Rensburg, had carried out intelligence-gathering and subversive work that endangered Russian security.
The FSB also cautioned Russian citizens that maintaining contact with British diplomats could bring severe consequences.
As the war in Ukraine grinds on, the Kremlin has increasingly cast Britain as one of its principal opponents, accusing UK intelligence agencies of intensifying spying operations in what it portrays as a return to Cold War-style confrontation.
On the front line, Russian state media said Russian troops had captured the villages of Novoosynove and Luhivske in eastern Ukraine. Those claims could not be independently verified.
In another incident, Ukraine said it had issued an apology to Finland after two drones came down in the country over the weekend.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said the aircraft had most likely been pushed off course by Russian electronic warfare systems and were not deliberately sent into Finnish territory.