Ukraine and Russia blame one another for violation of truce

Ukraine and Russia accused one another on Wednesday of flouting a truce on energy strikes brokered by the United States, and the European Union said it would not meet conditions set by Russia for a planned ceasefire in the Black Sea.

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Ukraine also accused Moscow on Wednesday of being incapable of managing safety at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after what it said were reports of a huge spillage of diesel, reports dismissed by Russia as "fake."

Russian forces have occupied the plant since the early days of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then, both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of staging attacks and risking a nuclear incident.

The United States announced separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia on Tuesday to pause their strikes in the Black Sea and against each other's energy targets, but the rhetoric from Moscow and Kyiv suggested they remained far apart.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the US side told Kyiv the deals were effective as soon as they were announced.

But the Kremlin said the Black Sea agreement would not enter force until a sanctioned Russian state bank was reconnected to the international payment system.

Europe said that would not happen until a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.

The Kremlin contends it has already been implementing a pause on energy attacks since March 18, though a senior Ukrainian presidential official said Russia had attacked eight Ukrainian energy facilities since that date.