London – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that missile and drone attacks launched by Russia have shown that Moscow’s support has shown support for a cease-fire in Ukraine is not “real”.
Ukrainian authorities have reported air strikes in several regions of the country, including a drone attack against a hospital in the northeast of the city of Sumy. The dam occurred a few hours after Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin concluded attacks on energy infrastructure in the White House peace efforts.
“Now, in many regions, you can literally hear what Russia really needs,” said Zelenskyy on Telegram. “About 40 Shahes in our sky, the air defense works,” added the president, referring to the strike drone designed by Iran used by Russia.
“Unfortunately, there are successes and precisely in civil infrastructure,” continued Zelenskyy. “These are precisely such night attacks in Russia that destroy our energy, our infrastructure, the normal life of Ukrainians. And the fact that this night is no exception shows that we must continue to put pressure on Russia for peace.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on March 18, 2025, President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House Oval Office on February 28, 2025.
AFP via Getty Images
Ukraine’s Air Force reported a total of six missiles and 145 drones drawn in the country overnight. Sixty-two drones have been slaughtered, Air Force said, with 56 others lost in flight without causing damage. The regions of Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Chernihiv were affected by the attack, the Air Force wrote on Telegram.
“Today, Putin actually rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire,” said Zelenskyy. “It would just be that the world rejects all Putin’s attempts to drag the war in response.”
“The sanctions against Russia. Help with Ukraine. Strengthen allies in the free world and work towards security guarantees,” added the president. “And only a real cessation of Russia of attacks against civil infrastructure as proof of a desire to put an end to this war can bring peace closer.”
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the call between Trump and Putin was a “detailed and frank exchange of views”. Putin has not accepted the 30-day complete cease-fire offered by the United States and Ukraine, the Kremlin press release said the Russian chief again framing any break in the fighting as beneficial to the armed forces of Ukraine.
The two parties accepted a ceasefire on the energy infrastructure attacks, said the Kremlin, after which Putin immediately gave the relevant order to the Russian troops “.
Ukrainian forces use projectors while looking for drones in the sky above Kyiv during a Russian drone shot on March 18, 2025.
GLEB GUARANCH / REUTERS
A few hours later, the Russian authorities reported a drone attack on an oil deposit installation in the south of the Krasnodar region.
“Due to the fall in debris, there was a fire at the oil depot,” the local administration said in a statement published on Telegram. “The pipeline between the tanks has been damaged.”
Local authorities have not pointed out any victim, but added that 30 workers were evacuated from the region and the suspended operations.
The Operational Headquarters of the Télégramme region said that the fire of the deposit has spread to more than 18,000 square feet via a leak in a tank. “Emergency services keep the situation under control,” he said, noting that “179 people and 54 equipment units are involved in the fire difference”.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces have shot down 57 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The Russian Federal Agency for Air Transport Rosaviatssia said that operations had been temporarily suspended in airports in Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhnekamsk, but did not specify the reason. Flights to Russian airports are regularly disturbed during drone attacks.
Ukrainian police, experts and rescuers bring together the debris of a drone shot down to the outskirts of kyiv on March 18, 2025.
Genya Savilov / AFP via Getty Images
The White House declared Tuesday after the call between Trump and Putin that the two leaders “agreed that the movement towards peace would begin with an energy and a ceasefire of energy and infrastructure, as well as technical negotiations on the implementation of a sea cease in the Black Sea, the full cease-fire and permanent peace. These negotiations will start immediately in the Middle East.”
Trump, in his own publication on social networks later on Tuesday, described the long -standing “very good and productive” conversation.
“We agreed with an immediate cease-fire on any energy and infrastructure, understanding that we will work quickly to have a complete ceasefire and, ultimately, the end of this very horrible war between Russia and Ukraine,” wrote Trump.
Trump also said that securing the 30-day ceasefire wanted by Ukraine “would have been difficult”, in a clip published in a pre-tapped interview on Fox News.
Alexandra Hutzler of ABC News and Oleksiy Pshemyskiy contributed to this report.
