The moratorium on strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure has expired, announced Russian President's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. 'Indeed, the month has expired, but at the moment, there have been no other instructions from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President [Vladimir] Putin,' said Peskov (quote from TASS), reports The Moscow Times.
Putin agreed to refrain from attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities for 30 days during a phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on March 18. After that, he gave the corresponding order to the Russian military. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also supported the moratorium. A few days before the expiration of the established period, Peskov said the president would make a decision on whether to extend this measure after consulting with the U.S. He also noted that Moscow had provided data on Ukraine's violations of the limited ceasefire to 'all interested countries.' Meanwhile, President Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov stated that Moscow would send 'a certain signal' to Washington about the future of the moratorium.
On April 18, Putin will hold an operational meeting with permanent members of the Security Council, Peskov reported. He added that the president's other meetings that day will be private. Peskov also mentioned that Putin has no scheduled contacts with Trump this week, but 'established contacts allow such a conversation to be quickly arranged if necessary.'
The day before, on April 17, U.S. President Trump stated that he expects Moscow's response to the ceasefire proposal in Ukraine. 'Let's see what happens. <…> We want this [war] to stop. We want death and killings to stop,' said Trump.
Russia, in turn, requested closed consultations of the UN Security Council on April 17 to discuss the results of the 30-day moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure. Following the consultations, Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said that a ceasefire in Ukraine is impossible.
'We had an attempt at a limited ceasefire regarding energy infrastructure, which was not respected by the Ukrainian side. Under these circumstances, talking about a ceasefire at this stage is simply unrealistic,' said Nebenzya.
