U.S. officials threatened to stop intelligence sharing and a weapons program for Ukraine if it attacked Russian energy infrastructure during the announced ceasefire, The Kyiv Independent reported, citing Ukrainian officials.
Two Ukrainian officials told the outlet that their American counterparts warned Washington would hold Kyiv responsible for such attacks. The warnings reached senior military and government officials, according to the report.
“They called all the top military officials with threats,” one official said.
“They’re telling everyone that they’re going to turn off both the intelligence sharing and PURL.”
Another official said Pavlo Palisa, a deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office responsible for military affairs, and Ukrainian military official Mykhailo Drapatyi received calls from the American side.
The Kyiv Independent also reported that Palisa told the Financial Times he had received threats from the Trump administration. The accounts of the calls were not independently verified.
PURL stands for Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List. It is a European-led initiative that provides U.S. weapons to Ukraine, financed mainly by NATO members, according to The Kyiv Independent.
The outlet reported that the program supplied $6.7 billion in weapons during its first year. Direct U.S. military aid had been suspended since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, while intelligence sharing continued, it said.
Trump announced an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine on Oct. 11. Several senior Ukrainian officials told The Kyiv Independent that Kyiv had received no advance notice.
Ukrainian officials then faced pressure to comply and stop attacks on Russian refineries, according to the outlet.
The report described two days in which Trump also announced a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import Russian diesel and repeatedly demanded that Ukraine replace President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities continued, The Kyiv Independent reported. It said a strike hit the Kharkiv thermal power plant hours after Trump’s announcement.
At a Warsaw Security Forum event attended by the outlet’s journalists, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had agreed to an energy ceasefire but needed further details.
He said any agreement had to protect Ukraine’s energy system, rather than cover refineries alone. Ukraine depended on imported fuel and had only one refinery, badly damaged by earlier Russian strikes, he told the forum.
“We are ready to respect an energy ceasefire if Russia is ready to do the same. We agree if they agree,” Zelenskyy said.
He reported that no Russian refineries burned overnight, while a Russian jet-powered Shahed drone struck a Ukrainian gas-production facility at midnight. The reported attacks were not independently verified.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the reported energy truce in remarks to Russia’s TASS news agency, according to The Kyiv Independent. He said Russia was “ready to do everything possible” to achieve “long-term peace.”
