Putin Is “Playing a Game” by Continuing Strikes on Ukraine’s Infrastructure, German Defense Minister Says

Germany accuses Russian leader Vladimir Putin of “playing a game” after Russian strikes targeted Ukrainian infrastructure, despite the preliminary agreement to temporarily halt attacks on energy facilities, DW reported, citing German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

“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, Pistorius said in an interview, adding that “Putin is playing a game.”

Pistorius also called the Kremlin’s demand for a complete cessation of Western military and intelligence support for Ukraine’s struggling military as a “key condition” for peace, labeling it as “unacceptable.”

The German Defense Minister added that Putin is trying to prevent Ukraine’s allies from “further supporting Ukraine and enabling it to really defend itself if there is another attack, during or after a ceasefire.”

On March 18, Trump and Putin held a phone conversation regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine, where the Russian side agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days.

On March 19, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that even after Putin claimed to order a halt to strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, 150 drones were launched, attacking, among other things, energy facilities.