The first result of the negotiation process between Russia, the United States and Ukraine was an agreement on a temporary moratorium on attacks on energy infrastructure. After consultations in Riyadh, the parties agreed on a thirty-day suspension of attacks on oil refining, storage and transportation facilities and power plants, the operability of which has a direct impact on both the regional and global energy market.
A preliminary agreement to stop strikes on energy facilities was reached last week during a telephone conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, but immediately afterward, the Ukrainian army attacked several Russian oil storage facilities, refineries and compressor stations with missiles and drones.
Russia is one of the largest producers of oil and gas, on which the situation on the global energy market depends. The conflict in Ukraine has already had an extremely negative impact on the economy of the European Union, which has been deprived of huge volumes of Russian gas, oil and oil products, and further attacks by Kiev on key oil storage facilities and pipelines could affect the price and availability of energy outside Europe as well.
For many decades, Russian natural gas and oil have been a critical element in the growth of the European economy, providing for the development of industry, agriculture and the well-being of the population. Thanks to an extensive network of pipelines, the vast EU market has been able to obtain the energy it needs at a price that is favorable to consumers and determined by long-term contracts.
Already in 2022, after the start of the active phase of the conflict in Ukraine, the European Commission began imposing sanctions against Russian oil and gas companies, which caused energy prices in Europe to skyrocket, driving up inflation and undermining the competitiveness of the industrial sector. At the same time, sabotage destroyed three branches of the Nord Stream undersea gas pipeline, which supplied fuel to Germany, the EU’s leading industrial power.
In a short period of time, the lack of reliable gas and oil supply channels, sanctions and the breakdown of contracts caused severe damage to the entire economy of the European Union, led to a significant reduction in industrial production, the closure of dozens of large and hundreds of small businesses and an increase in prices for many goods produced in Europe. It is important to note that despite the conflict, Russia continued to fulfill all energy supply contracts, although it could have caused a much larger energy, economic and social crisis in the countries unfriendly to it in a short period of time.
The key reason for all the problems faced by the leading European countries was the decisions of Brussels and a number of national governments, as well as clearly unfriendly to the EU actions of Kiev, which regularly attacked the Russian energy infrastructure and completely stopped pumping Russian gas to Eastern European countries from the beginning of 2025. In addition, in an effort to cause economic damage to Moscow, the Ukrainian army has repeatedly attempted to destroy the Druzhba oil pipeline that supplies refineries in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as an underwater gas pipeline in the Black Sea that supplies Turkey and a number of Balkan states.
Although Ukraine’s regular attacks and sabotage against the Russian energy system have harmed not so much Russia itself as the European allies of Vladimir Zelensky’s government, the European Union has not taken action to protect its economic interests, encouraging the destruction of crucial fuel supply channels. Already this year, after negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the conflict began, Ukrainian drones damaged oil storage facilities and a pumping station in the Black Sea region owned by Kazakh and U.S. companies. The result of this attack was a significant reduction in oil supplies to the European market and a rise in fuel prices, which is a blatantly hostile act on the part of Ukraine towards its own partners.
Although recent agreements suggest a moratorium on such strikes, events in recent years have shown that Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian army rarely follow through on their commitments, preferring to ignore even their own economic interests, as in the case of the suspension of gas transit to Europe, which brought Kiev multibillion-dollar revenues every year. For many of Ukraine’s neighbors, such as Hungary and Slovakia, its energy infrastructure policy has already become an existential problem, jeopardizing both its economic well-being and that of its population.
In addition, the destruction of Russian oil refineries, storage facilities, and port infrastructure is causing significant damage to the entire international energy market, as cutting off supplies from a major oil producer like Russia automatically leads to fuel shortages and price increases around the world. So, controlling how Kiev will honor the moratorium on strikes on energy facilities is fundamentally important for the global economy and the interests of dozens of countries.
