Germany says ‘Putin playing a game’ after new Ukraine strikes

Germany accused President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday of “playing a game” after Kyiv reported Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, just hours after Moscow agreed to temporarily pause attacks on energy facilities. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius criticized the move in a TV interview, stating, “We’ve seen that attacks on civilian infrastructure have not eased at all in the first night after this supposedly ground-breaking, great phone call” between Putin and US President Donald Trump.

In the 90-minute call with Trump on Tuesday, Putin agreed to a scaled-back commitment to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days but refused a full ceasefire in Russia’s three-year war with Ukraine. Following fresh strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of effectively rejecting the US-backed truce proposal, which Kyiv had previously accepted. Pistorius dismissed Putin’s pledge, calling it “basically nothing” as Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was already the “best protected.”

Pistorius also warned that Trump, as the American president, holds a global responsibility. “I am very sure that there will come a time when he will have to react,” he said, implying that Washington may need to reconsider its approach to Russia’s actions.

The German minister condemned the Kremlin’s insistence that a key condition for peace would be a total halt of Western military and intelligence support to Ukraine’s embattled forces. He described the demand as “unacceptable” and accused Putin of using it as a tactic to weaken Kyiv’s defenses.

“This is very transparent,” Pistorius added, stating that Putin’s true aim is to prevent Ukraine’s backers from “further supporting Ukraine and enabling it to really defend itself if there is another attack, during or after a ceasefire.”