The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed a recent report by the Financial Times claiming that Russian and Ukrainian officials are discussing a potential pause on strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure.
“There’s a lot of fake news nowadays, and it has nothing to do with reality,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked to comment on the report. “Even the most reputable publications don’t shy away from this.”
FT reported Tuesday that Ukraine and Russia are in talks about halting strikes on energy sites. The discussions, mediated by Qatar, mark a resumption of previous de-escalation efforts that were abandoned after Kyiv launched its incursion into the Kursk region, according to sources cited by the newspaper.
However, a former senior Kremlin official told FT that President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to agree on any deal as long as Ukrainian troops “are trampling the land in Kursk.”
Nevertheless, according to an unnamed Ukrainian official, Russian and Ukrainian intelligence agencies allegedly reached an understanding to reduce the frequency of attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks.
This summer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zleneksy said Russian attacks had destroyed half of Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity since the winter.
