Russia and Ukraine report air attacks after Putin-Trump call

Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Wednesday of launching air attacks that struck civilian targets including infrastructure, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump he would pause attacks on Ukraine's energy system, Reuters reports.

In their call on Tuesday, Putin declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire sought by Trump and previously accepted by Ukraine. Putin said he would agree to a limited pause in attacks on energy infrastructure, which was then accepted by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

After Russia launched its air attacks early on Wednesday, Zelenskiy urged the world to block any attempts by Moscow to drag out the war.

"Russia is attacking civilian infrastructure and people - right now," Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's chief of staff, said overnight on Telegram.

Both warring sides described scores of drone attacks overnight.

Zelenskiy said that Russia launched more than 40 drones against Ukraine in the hours following the call between Trump and Putin. 

Russia's defence ministry said that its units destroyed 57 Ukrainian drones overnight, 35 of them over the border Kursk region.

According to RT, the Russian military has said that it had to shoot down its own drones to fulfill President Vladimir Putin’s order to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The president gave the order as a result of discussions with his US counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday.

The Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that it had “received an order from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure," according to RT. 

According to the report, when Putin’s order came in “seven Russian attack drones were in the air, targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities related to the country’s military-industrial complex in Nikolaev region.”

To fulfill the command, the Russian air defenses had to “neutralize” the UAVs, RT reported. Six drones were shot down by a Pantsir missile system and another by a fighter jet, it added.