Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday urged supporters to speak out in defence of new US sanctions against Russia, hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing a sweeping package of restrictions targeting the Russian economy.
The White House decision has further raised fears that Ukraine could be left exposed to Moscow’s escalating assaults as winter approaches.
Russian attacks overnight killed at least four people, including an ambulance driver, and injured dozens, officials said. Ukrainian drones killed a woman in a Russian border region and disrupted flights at Moscow’s airports, according to Russian authorities.
Zelenskyy described Trump’s decision to put the sanctions on hold as unfortunate but did not directly criticise the US leader, despite deepening tensions between Ukraine and Washington in recent days.
“A decision was unfortunately made in America to completely disregard the Lindsey Graham Act, which was supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to bring this war to an end,” Zelenskyy wrote.
He also expressed hope that the new sanctions could be revived.
“This Act could have helped enormously -- and still can! But it needs to actually work, and every voice in support of it matters,” he said.
Named after the late South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, the legislation sought to clamp down more quickly on the flow of financial resources fuelling Russia’s 4 1/2-year-old war against Ukraine. The bill sought to sanction Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers that keeps Russian energy moving.
Trump personally signed the legislation just last month. His decision to pause its implementation came only two days before the deadline set out in the law. The President told Congress that the pause was in the national interest but provided no further details.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, who co-drafted the bill, said in a statement that Trump was turning his back on “the majority of Americans, their representatives in both houses of Congress, and our European allies.”
“These waivers have nothing to do with our national security, and everything to do with sucking up to Vladimir Putin,” Blumenthal said.
Trump’s unexpected decision came a week after he said the US had agreed to purchase diesel from Russia in an attempt to bring down global energy prices, despite the potential impact on Ukraine’s war effort.
Trump said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.”
The decision has been criticised by Republicans and Democrats alike, who argue that it will help Russia continue its war against Ukraine without making a difference to global fuel prices. Those prices remain elevated largely because of Trump’s war on Iran.
Zelenskyy also said on Saturday that Moscow had carried out a massive strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, targeting more than 15 sites across the country.
“The sheer scale and unrelenting pace of Russia's strikes, specifically against our energy sector, are unfortunately having severe consequences,” he said.
Ukraine’s air force said Russian forces launched four cruise missiles and 332 attack drones overnight. All four missiles and 289 of the drones had been suppressed or destroyed, it said.
Russia’s heavy bombardment of Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter has been an annual feature of the war. The attacks aim to wear down Ukraine’s appetite for the fight by denying civilians heat and running water. Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia is stockpiling ballistic missiles for further attacks in the coming months.
Russian attacks killed three people in the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, Vadym Liakh, head of the city’s military administration, said on Saturday. Writing on social media, Liakh said two apartment blocks were partially destroyed and other homes damaged.
A Russian strike also killed an ambulance driver in Ukraine’s Kherson region, local military administration head Yaroslav Shanko said. The strike, which involved guided bombs, injured at least 33 others, he said.
Elsewhere, a Russian woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian border region of Belgorod, local officials said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that its forces had shot down 610 Ukrainian drones overnight across 15 Russian regions, as well as the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 100 drones had been shot down en route to the Russian capital. More than 350 flights were cancelled or delayed at Moscow’s airports, local media reported, as aircraft were grounded in response to incoming drones.
The Kremlin announced on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had approved a government programme to help restore trade and logistics facilities damaged in drone attacks.