On Tuesday night, the alarm sirens sounded again throughout Ukraine. The Russians launched another rocket-dron attack, aiming, among others, at a power plant in Slaviansk. In the context of the conflict in the East, it would not have been different if it had not been for the fact that Vladimir Putin had promised Donald Trump a 30-day moratorium on the impact of Ukrainian energy a minute earlier.
Effects of the Russian drone attack in the Kiev Oblast. Hostomel, Ukraine, 19 March 2025.
In hotly published Russian media coverage Tuesday's Trump-Putin Talk It was stressed that the Kremlin issued appropriate orders related to the partial ceasefire. However, shortly after the negotiations of the presidents, there was a Russian attack on the Ukrainian power plant in Slaviansk. Is it hard to say that Putin's command did not scope the units liable for rocket-dron strikes, was it ignored, or was Putin's word simply a meaningless declaration from the beginning?
Regardless of circumstances, Ukrainians immediately launched a counterattack by attacking the fuel base in Cuba with drones. Shortly after that, the Russian Ministry of Defence issued a message that "the Kiev attack on energy infrastructure in the Kubania region was a planned provocation to disrupt U.S. President's peaceful initiatives". Blaming an opponent is simply a typical Russian play and it does not substance that specified a definition of a situation contradicts the chronology of accidents.
Washington has not yet commented on these events, possibly due to the fact that they put the American president in an awkward position – as the 1 who fell for Putin. On the fact Social Trump platform, he described the conversation with the Russian leader as “very good and productive”. "We will work rapidly for a full ceasefire and the end of the war in Ukraine," he wrote on the evening of March 18. It all argues that this is inactive in force across the ocean regarding yesterday's negotiations and their effects.
It's not easy for others to say. – Trump's agreement with Putin about a 30-day halt to Moscow and Kiev's common attacks on energy infrastructure is worthless," commented German defence minister Boris Pistorius in an interview with ZDF. In his opinion, Trump will gotta do more, "react according to the strength and position of the United States."
On the another hand, Jamie Shea, erstwhile Deputy Secretary General of NATO, stressed that the American president had been pushing for 30 days of full and unconditional truce. "He said he was making large advancement in this field. Instead, Putin agreed to the absolute minimum: ceasefire on attacks on energy infrastructure," quoted erstwhile Natovian PAP official. – Trump now knows that he does not have the power to rapidly end the war [...] but, like Trump, he will effort to present it in a affirmative light," Shea assessed. He called the results of the negotiations "moderate" mainly due to the fact that Russia has already destroyed a large part of Ukrainian energy – it is so hard to talk of a large concession.
Let us remind, before the full-scale war Ukraine produced 47 GW of electricity (two and a half times more than Poland). The attacks from the turn of 2022 and 2023 resulted in the failure of 21 GW. Dramatic Reduction, but it should be remembered that Ukraine had crucial surplus power – until late and already during the full-scale war, it sold electricity, among others, to Poland. In addition, respective million people left the country after February 24, 2022, and industrial production and consumption fell. Therefore, the Russian blow, nevertheless severe, did not ‘disable’ Ukraine. This was besides not the case in the spring of 2024, after another series of attacks on power plants resulting in an additional 10 GW of energy from the Ukrainian system. Today, more than 60% of power comes from a atomic power plant. Ukraine controls 3 specified facilities – the fourth, in Zaporozh, is under Russian occupation. These are very delicate targets, but attacking them involves the hazard of a giant ecological disaster that the Russians are not ready to cause..
