On the heels of the historic telephone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin which codified a path to the end of the Ukraine war and set the stage for a new geopolitical order in which Washington and Moscow are allies, Kiev’s forces bombed energy infrastructure in Russia’s Krasnodar Region that services an international pipeline operation partially owned by American investors, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. Russia then responded with a counter attack.
“The overnight attack involved three kamikaze drones directed against a station near the village of Kavkazskaya, the ministry reported. The facility is used to transfer crude from rail-transported tanks to a pipeline operated by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), an international firm that counts US giants Chevron and Mobil among its partners,” RT said Wednesday.
“Clearly, this was a premeditated provocation by the Kiev regime aimed at derailing the US president’s peace initiative,” the Russian military claimed.
Russia responded to the Ukrainian attack with a retaliatory strike, however Western outlets leave that the Russian strike was a counter-attack and reference it ambiguously.
“An overnight Russian missile attack left part of Slovyansk city without electricity, military officials said. Meanwhile, Russian authorities said Ukraine attacked an oil depot near the village of Kavkazskaya,” The Independent said Wednesday.
Interesting, during Tuesday’s call, Putin agreed with Trump to not strike Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. To fulfill that promise, Russia claims it had actually shot its own drones out of the sky.
“The Russian military has said that it had to shoot down its own drones to fulfill President Vladimir Putin’s order to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The president gave the order as a result of discussions with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday,” RT said Wednesday. “According to the ministry, when Putin’s order came in ‘seven Russian attack drones were in the air, targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities related to the country’s military-industrial complex in Nikolaev region. To fulfill the command, the Russian air defenses had to ‘neutralize’ the UAVs. Six drones were shot down by a Pantsir missile system and another by a fighter jet, it added.”
Trump said on Tuesday following his call to Moscow that a ceasefire agreement had been agreed to by Putin. Ukraine previously agreed to a separate ceasefire one week prior. Ukraine’s ceasefire appears to have been broken after Putin agreed to Russia’s ceasefire.
“My phone conversation today with President Putin of Russia was a very good and productive one,” Trump said. “We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine. This War would have never started if I were President! Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end. That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of Humanity, get the job done!”
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff has said on Tuesday that a complete ceasefire will likely be implemented within a couple of weeks, not just a temporary ceasefire agreement for energy infrastructure, as has been previously agreed to by both Moscow and Kiev, at least verbally.
“He confirmed that the two leaders agreed on a ‘cessation of attacks on energy infrastructure, from both [Russia and Ukraine], and civilian infrastructure for that matter.’ Trump and Putin also undertook to work ‘toward a Black Sea moratorium on hits on naval vessels and freighters carrying grain and things of that sort’,” RT said Wednesday. “Witkoff expressed hope that these initial steps would ‘evolve into a full-on ceasefire, which is a bit more complicated because there is a 2,000-kilometer border, there’s [Russia’s] Kursk [Region], and there’s a lot of details that go into that’.”