Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on March 20, 2025
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry said on Thursday that Ukraine had already violated a proposed ceasefire on energy sites in the three-year-old war by attacking a Russian oil depot.
Russia's TASS news agency reported foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told state television Channel One that it was up to the United States, which had proposed the ceasefire, to confront Ukraine over its actions.
The Kremlin said this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed in a call with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump to observe a 30-day ceasefire on energy targets. The accord fell short of a wider agreement that the U.S. had sought, and which was accepted by Ukraine, for a blanket 30-day truce.
Firefighters in southern Russia were still battling a blaze at an oil depot triggered by a Ukrainian drone attack, regional authorities said on the Telegram messaging app.
"We believe that the Kyiv regime has already broken the ceasefire proposed by the U.S. president," Zakharova said on television, according to TASS.
"Now the question is - you will forgive me - how is Washington going to handle this terrorist scum gone mad? How are they going to put them in their place and get them on to something like the right track?"
Ukrainian officials have also accused Russia of failing to align their actions with their pledges by launching attacks on civilian targets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Russian attacks on infrastructure, including hospitals and rail equipment, showed "Putin's words are very different from reality".
In earlier comments, Zakharova had described the attack on the oil depot as a "provocation" and an attempt by Ukraine to disrupt peace initiatives.
Authorities in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar said a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an oil depot near the village of Kavkazskaya. The depot is a rail terminal for Russian oil supplies to a pipeline linking Kazakhstan to the Black Sea.
A statement issued by authorities in the Krasnodar region on Thursday evening said efforts were continuing to bring the blaze under control.
The statement said 429 firefighters and 174 pieces of equipment had been drafted to tackle the fire covering 3,750 sq m (40,400 sq ft).
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Ron Popeski and Jamie Freed)
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