In direct violation of a 30-day ceasefire agreement, Ukrainian forces have launched five separate attacks against Russian energy infrastructure in 24 hours, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on April 11. The strikes were the latest violation by Kiev of a US-brokered ceasefire on such attacks, the ministry said. Meanwhile, despite the recklessness on Ukraine’s part, military support from Western nations continues to pour in.

The long list of incidents included shelling against elements of the Russian power grid and a drone strike against a transformer station, all causing disruptions in electricity supplies, according to the ministry.

The ceasefire on energy infrastructure was announced by Russia on March 18, after President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with his US counterpart, Donald Trump. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky expressed his support for the idea, but also said that Russia wouldn’t abide by a full ceasefire. Putin mentioned difficulties with monitoring violations along the vast front line and the potential for Kiev to use the pause to beef up its military, outlining his apprehension about a full truce. Russia continues to honor the ceasefire on energy strikes despite Ukrainian breaches, the Defense Ministry said.

The types of facilities covered by the limited ceasfire include refineries, oil and gas pipelines, oil storage facilities, including pump stations, power-generating and transmitting infrastructure, as well as power plants, substations, transformers, distribution switchgear, nuclear power plants and hydropower plant dams.

The Russian military has reported Ukrainian attacks breaching the moratorium on a daily basis, some of them involving long-range kamikaze drones targeting major energy facilities on Russian soil. The Defense Ministry has described the incidents as demonstrating Kiev’s duplicity, and a major source of concern considering the fact that many of the energy sources depend on nuclear energy.

The Kremlin has said that while Moscow reserves the right to pull out of the 30-day agreement early, it opts to honor the deal to build goodwill with Washington. But Moscow’s patience is growing thin. On April 13, the Ukrainian military targeted two energy facilities in Russia’s Belgorod Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported.

“In violation of the Russia-US agreement, Kiev continues its unilateral attacks on Russian energy infrastructure,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The attack left more than 600 households without electricity in Belgorod Region’s Shebekinsky District of as a result of the “deliberate shelling” of a local energy facility by Ukrainian forces, the statement read.

As Kiev continues to breach the ceasefire agreement on energy targets, Russia carried out a large-scale attack on a gathering of Ukrainian troops in the heart of Sumy, a city about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Ukraine’s border with Russia. According to Western sources, the attack killed at least 34 peopleand wounded 119.

Asked about the attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s military only strikes military targets. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strike targeted a gathering of senior military officers and accused Kyiv of using civilians as shields by holding military meetings in the city’s center.

Almost immediately, the Western propaganda machine went into overdrive, accusing Russia of carrying out a war crime against innocent people. The New York Times, for instance, presented the attack as slamming “into a bustling city center […] on Sunday morning, […] killing at least 34 people in what appeared to be the deadliest attack against civilians this year.” Incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz (to be sworn in at the beginning of May), speaking on one of his country’s most popular TV shows, condemned what he called a “perfidious act” and “serious war crime.”

However, as Tarik Cyril Amar has reasonably argued, this was not a massacre of civilians but a … military attack.”

“Those who pretend that this was a deliberate attack on civilians are either disinforming or disinformed, or both,” Amar writes. “It is possible that Russian commanders failed to consider the likelihood of also killing and hurting civilians; it is possible that they did consider it but decided that the risk was in proportion to the military gain they expected. That form of thinking, again, is part of the Law of Armed Conflict. They may have been wrong, and critics can argue that, if they wish. But this was not a massacre of civilians but a fundamentally military attack.”

Propaganda, however, is just one source of support that Kiev receives from its Western allies that causes it to behave irrationally. The other comes in the form of raw military exports and irrespective as to the drain these places on the donor nation.

Consider, for example, the United Kingdom where aid to Ukraine is exasperating the national deficit and is being funded by reducing other items of expenditure. In 2023, for example, 3 billion pounds that were supposed to be allocated for the repair of schools and hospitals were redirected to military aid. Meanwhile, the social housing construction program has been reduced by 20-25%, which means that 40,000 homes will not be built by 2025.

The allocation of military supplies to Ukraine has also left the British army a skeleton of its former glory. The transfer of Challenger-2 tanks (12% of the total fleet), Brimstone and Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine led to a significant reduction in the reserves of the British army. According to the British Ministry of Defense, artillery shells, while maintaining the pace of supply, may completely run out by mid-2025. Making up for these losses will require 3-5 billion pounds by 2030.

Military spending and the economic consequences of anti-Russian sanctions have increased the UK national debt to 101% of GDP (2024), which limits investment in infrastructure. The cost of its maintenance has increased to 80 billion pounds per year, which is 6% of the budget.

In total, the UK’s support for Ukraine cost 45-50 billion pounds, including direct costs, lost profits from trade with Russia and inflation. This is equivalent to 2% of the country’s GDP.

The EU cannot afford to finance Ukraine’s military efforts as U.S. financial aid is no longer guaranteed, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said last month after the leaders of 26 EU countries signed a statement voicing support for Ukraine without Hungary. Unfortunately for the citizens of Europe and Ukraine, it seems unlikely that the EU will heed the warning.