Chris Rickleton

It is clear that Putin does not read Truth Social, and his “shahed” drones follow a different set of instructions. But we in Ukraine immediately supported the idea of an energy ceasefire, as we did more than once for months when we ourselves put forward this idea. We agreed to an energy ceasefire. The American team knows very well what this means for us. We do not have major oil reserves, large oil export capacity, or dozens of oil refineries. In Ukraine, we have just one oil refinery, and it was badly damaged by Russian strikes long ago. We import large amounts of diesel and other oil products. And I am grateful to all our neighbors, especially Poland, for helping us with our energy needs. For us, the key issue is electricity. Russia started its campaign of strikes against our power generation and power grid years ago. And every winter, including this one, Russians try to make these attacks even more intense – we have power cuts every single day. For Russia, of course, gasoline shortages and burning oil refineries – because of our strikes in response – are painful. And these are not the same volumes that could be lost because of the crisis in Hormuz. But if Russia wants us to stop our long-range strikes against its oil refineries and oil exports, then Russia must stop its strikes against our energy system and critical infrastructure. This is only fair. From a speech at the Warsaw Security Forum. (1/3)