Trump announces ‘energy ceasefire’ between Russia and Ukraine after calling for Zelensky’s replacement

President Trump said Sunday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to an “energy ceasefire,” shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged to continue hitting Russian oil refineries in response to criticism from Mr. Trump.

“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Both sides agree. Don’t break it! Thank you for your attention to this issue,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social article. It is unclear what exactly the ceasefire entails.

Mr Trump had previously taken aim at the Ukrainian president’s leadership, suggesting Zelenskyy should be replaced and blaming him for high diesel prices. The Ukrainian president responded by saying that Russia was solely responsible for the war in Ukraine.

“Ukraine will be ready to stop hitting Russian oil refineries if Russia stops hitting our energy infrastructure,” Zelensky wrote on X.

“It is possible to stop strikes on energy infrastructure today, but (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not want to do it,” he said, adding that any de-escalation must be reciprocal and backed by real guarantees.

The exchange comes as kyiv continues its campaign against infrastructure deep within Russia, with a drone attack on Sunday shutting down a data center run by Russian tech giant Yandex, the third strike against the company’s facilities in four days. Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a long-range air war while their armies remain largely stuck on the front lines, more than four and a half years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

Speaking to ABC News’ “This Week” Sunday morning, Zelenskyy said Ukrainians “want peace.”

“About energy, I have repeatedly said this to President Trump… his team and his people. We want peace,” Zelensky said. “We are ready for a ceasefire. We are ready to undertake any de-escalation steps.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also pushed back against Mr. Trump’s comments, writing on X on Saturday evening that Zelensky was leading the country in a war for its independence.

“He has the support of the Ukrainian people and they have the right to decide. The foreigner’s statements only confirm that he is doing his job well,” Sybiha wrote.

Mr. Trump said saturday it was time for Ukraine to have a new president, suggesting Zelensky didn’t do enough to end the war and blaming him for high U.S. diesel prices

“I suggest they pick a new leader who can make a deal, because he could have made a lot of deals and for some reason he never does,” Mr. Trump said.

According to an announcement by Mr. Trump on Friday, the United States reached an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to immediately purchase more than 300,000 tons of diesel from Russia, followed by 500,000 tons in November and a million tons thereafter. As part of the deal, which aims to address high fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections, Mr. Trump also urged Zelensky to stop strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. Zelensky criticized the deal and said it would help finance Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Mr. Trump has sought to place the blame for record U.S. diesel prices on Ukraine rather than Ukraine. the war in Iranwhich pushed up global energy prices. Ukrainian and European officials reacted with dismay to the diesel deal, saying it would help fund Russia’s war effort.

The Ukrainian drone attack on the Yandex data center in the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow, caused outages in the company’s services, leaving users in dozens of Russian cities as well as in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia unable to order a taxi or access banking services, according to Russian independent media outlet Astra.

“As a result of the drone attack, the infrastructure of the Yandex data center in Vladimir was damaged. Data center operations were completely disrupted. There were no injuries,” said the Yandex Cloud Telegram channel, which provides operational updates on the availability of the service.

In Moscow, residents described disruptions to their daily tasks. Yandex Taxi driver Pavel Belyavskiy said he wasn’t sure the orders were coming and that on several trips he had to cancel after a long wait because he couldn’t reach the passenger.

“I would press the call button to contact them, but nothing happens,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do, so I’m just forced to cancel.”

Igor Mann said he went to check the status of an order on the Yandex Market shopping platform, but the page was unavailable and connecting via VPN did not help. “Nothing worked,” he said.

Another Moscow resident, Eduard Malyavko, said the outages had a “direct impact” and were not just a matter of “convenience.”

“It’s also about work,” he said, adding that it also concerns “health care and everything else.”

On Thursday, a drone attack knocked a Yandex data center offline in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow. A day later, Ukrainian drones struck the company’s main data center in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, knocking it partly out of action, Yandex said.

Yandex, often described as Russia’s Google, runs the country’s most popular search engine and a wide range of digital services, and is heavily involved in the development of artificial intelligence in Russia.

Separately, Zelensky said search and rescue operations had ended in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia after a Russian bombardment on Saturday.

Zelensky said 23 people were killed in the attack, including four children. More than 30 people were injured, Fedorov said, eight of whom are still hospitalized.

A man was killed and two women injured in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Russian border region of Bryansk, local officials said Sunday.