Russia is accusing Ukraine of breaking a ceasefire agreement brokered by President Donald Trump after a gas pipeline in Sudzha exploded on Thursday. The Kremlin claims Ukrainian forces struck the site, violating a verbal deal between Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy not to target each other’s energy infrastructure.
Ukraine flatly denies the accusation, insisting that Russia is staging attacks on its own infrastructure to smear Kyiv. According to a post by Ukraine’s General Staff, “the mentioned station was repeatedly shelled by the Russians themselves,” and called the allegation “baseless.” But a video posted by a Ukrainian military Telegram channel may undercut that denial. The video reportedly shows the Sudzha blast with the caption: “Media are reporting a successful strike on the Sudzha gas transport system.”
That line alone is enough to raise serious questions about who is really behind the attack—and whether elements of Ukraine’s military are acting outside the terms of a deal their president agreed to just days ago.
Trump had brokered a temporary pause in strikes on energy infrastructure between Russia and Ukraine, securing verbal commitments from both Putin and Zelenskyy during separate calls. Technical details of the agreement were still being finalized, but both sides had reportedly agreed in principle to halt attacks that could impact critical energy facilities.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Friday morning that Putin’s no-strike order on energy targets still stands. “The president’s directive remains unchanged,” Russian state media quoted him as saying. Meanwhile, Russian officials announced they are treating the Sudzha explosion as a terror attack and have opened a criminal investigation into the blast.
If Ukraine did in fact violate the agreement—accidentally or otherwise—it could fracture the fragile momentum Trump has built toward de-escalation. And if Russia staged the strike to discredit Ukraine and derail Trump’s diplomatic progress, it’s a sign of just how disruptive his reemergence on the world stage really is. Either way, Trump is once again the only leader in the world capable of dragging both sides toward peace.
