Ukraine says Russia broke pledge not to attack
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Why did Russia break its pledge not to attack Ukraine?
You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 hours GMT on Wednesday the 19th of March. President Zelensky has accused Vladimir Putin of breaking a promise not to attack Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Turkish police have arrested the president's biggest political rival, Ekrem İmamoğlu, the popular mayor of Istanbul. And the UN says two of its staff have been killed at one of its compounds in Gaza.
Also in the podcast... Look, I'm 67 years old, but that's nothing. Mick Jagger is what, 82? I'm young, I'm a whippersnapper.
And look at the work of Hans Zimmer, composer of some of the world's most memorable film music. Putin is playing a game, so says the German foreign minister after the Russian president appeared to go back on his promise not to target Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Russia reportedly hit an electricity system in Ukraine just hours after the Trump-Putin phone call. President Zelensky said Russia's words didn't match its actions.
Even after Putin's conversation with the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, when Putin said that he was supposedly giving the order to stop the strikes on the Ukrainian energy sector, There were 150 drone attacks overnight, including on energy facilities. There were also strikes on transport. Unfortunately, two hospitals were hit and there were strikes on ordinary urban infrastructure. That means to say Putin's words are very, very at odds with reality.
For its part, Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to disrupt peace talks by targeting an oil storage facility on its territory. We'll hear from Moscow in a moment, but first to our diplomatic correspondent James Landau in Kiev.
According to President Zelensky, there were a number of drone strikes across the country. And as a result of that, there have been reports of a hospital in the town of Sumy being hit. There's also been reports of an attack on a rail power station in Dnipropetrovsk. directly in contradiction to Mr Putin's promises that he wouldn't target energy. And so in response to that, you know, Mr Zelensky is saying, well, look, the offer of a partial ceasefire is clearly positive. It's better than nothing. It was something that this idea of reducing the amount of tax on energy infrastructure was part of his original plan. But equally, the fact that the Russians have ignored and broken their promise already, he says, shows that Russia is not ready to finish the fighting. So there is some scepticism, I think, in Kiev about the promises that Mr Putin has made to Mr Trump.
But at the same time, Ukraine has also been striking Russia.
Yeah, that's right. I mean, when Mr. Zelensky gave his briefing yesterday after the telephone call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, he made it very clear that if Russia attacked Ukraine, particularly energy infrastructure, then Ukraine would hit back. He said, look, we're not going to stop doing this unless the Russians stop doing it. In other words, it has to be something that is mutual. Therefore, the fighting continues as it is. A lot of analysts here have been saying, look, energy infrastructure is not the thing anymore because we're coming out of the winter. We're heading into the spring when Ukraine is warmer, when the focus on energy is is less critical. What Mr. Putin is offering to give up is actually something that he might benefit from more than Ukraine.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
Why did Russia break its pledge not to attack Ukraine?
0:38–8:50
2
What is the current situation in Gaza following recent attacks?
8:50–12:52
3
Why does the JFK assassination continue to fuel conspiracy theories?
12:52–12:58
4
What new information has been released about the JFK assassination?
12:58–30:15