Kyiv:
Russia and Ukraine on Thursday each accused the other of breaching commitments not to strike energy facilities, throwing yet more jeopardy on the prospects of even a temporary and partial halt in the three-year war.
Moscow accused Kyiv’s army of directly targeting energy sites, while Ukraine said it qualified a Russian strike that knocked out power for tens of thousands of people as a “violation” of its commitment to pause attacks on energy infrastructure.
The White House had said on Tuesday that both Kyiv and Moscow agreed separately to “develop measures for implementing” a halt on strikes on energy infrastructure.
“Despite the Kyiv regime’s statements about the alleged cessation of strikes on Russian energy facilities, over the past 24 hours the Ukrainian Armed Forces have continued to strike energy infrastructure,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement.
It said Ukraine had launched a drone at an electricity site in the Bryansk region on Wednesday and fired artillery at a power unit in the same region on Thursday.
It also accused Kyiv of firing a drone at a gas storage facility in Crimea on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s army rejected those claims as “false”, while a senior Ukrainian official told AFP that it considered a Russian attack as a violation of the agreements.
“There has been shelling, seemingly not aimed at the energy sector, but the energy sector was affected,” they told AFP, referring to an artillery hit on the southern city of Kherson that left 67,000 subscribers without electricity.
“We qualify this as a clear violation,” they added.
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