Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of breaking ceasefire terms protecting energy sites

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of breaking the terms of a tentative U.S-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, underscoring the challenges to negotiating a broader peace in the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry alleged that Ukrainian drone attacks hit an electric facility in the Bryansk region early Wednesday and a power grid facility in the Kursk region on Tuesday, leading to a power cut affecting thousands of people.

It said that the Ukrainian government "is doing everything to derail the Russian-U.S. agreements on the gradual settlement” of the war.

Ukraine’s General Staff denied the allegations, saying in a statement Wednesday that Russia’s claims were part of a broader disinformation campaign aimed at justifying continued hostilities.

The accusations came hours after Washington announced a tentative agreement with Ukraine and Russia to pause attacks on energy sites and ensure safe shipping in the Black Sea, following three days of separate talks in Saudi Arabia aimed at implementing a limited, 30-day ceasefire that Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week.

However, conflicting statements emerged immediately after the talks on Tuesday. Both sides differed on the start time of halting strikes on energy sites and accused the other of violating the ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday Ukraine had agreed with U.S. negotiators in Riyadh “that a ceasefire for energy infrastructure can start today,” and expressed his country's willingness to comply with the agreement while warning Russia would face “strong retaliation” if it attacked Ukrainian energy facilities.

The Kremlin declared that Russian hasn't attacked any Ukrainian energy facilities since March 18 when Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to halt the attacks for 30 days in a phone call with President Donald Trump. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow will keep respecting the halt on strikes despite Ukrainian violations, saying that it marked a “good step forward thanks to the constructive relations with the American side.”

Ukrainian officials have contested the Kremlin claims.

“They’ve been hitting our energy sites with bombs, attack drones, and FPV drones," Zelenskyy’s communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said on X. "We’re not going into all the details, but there have already been eight confirmed hits on energy facilities. Every night our air defense forces shoot down nearly a hundred attack drones – and many of those drones were likely targeting other energy facilities.”

On Tuesday, the White House also announced that the sides had “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”

Details of the prospective deal were not released, but it appeared to mark another attempt to ensure safe Black Sea shipping after a 2022 agreement that was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey but halted by Russia the next year.

The Kremlin warned Tuesday that a potential Black Sea deal could only be implemented after sanctions against the Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial organizations involved in food and fertilizer trade are lifted and their access to the SWIFT system of international payments is ensured.

Speaking during a visit to Paris on Wednesday, Zelenskyy accused Moscow of attempting to add extra conditions to what should be an “unconditional agreement."

“We expect the American side to ensure an unconditional ceasefire at sea,” Zelenskyy said. “Russia wants this war to continue. Russia is prolonging it. Pressure on Russia is needed for the war to genuinely end.”

He also argued that it's too early for the United States to ease sanctions against Russia, stating that Ukraine continues discussions with international partners, including the United States, Asian countries and the European Union, to prepare new sanctions packages.

The White House said in Tuesday's statement that the U.S. “will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “we’re going to evaluate” the Russian conditions, noting that some of them “include sanctions that are not ours, they belong to the European Union."

Rubio said that after analyzing Moscow's demands, “we’ll present that to the president, who will make a decision” about the next step.

“I think everyone should be happy that the United States is engaged in a process of ending a war and bringing about peace," Rubio said. “It’s not going to be easy. It won’t be simple. It’ll take some time. But at least we’re on that road and we’re talking about these things, and we’re going to test it and see what’s possible.”

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said that contacts between Russia and the U.S. "continue quite intensively,” and that authorities are “satisfied with how pragmatic, constructive and productive our dialogue is.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomes the Black Sea commitments, which “will be a crucial contribution to global food security and supply chains,” said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Dujarric wouldn’t say whether the U.N. will be participating in monitoring the Black Sea agreement.

Speaking in Paris on Wednesday alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Zelenskyy emphasized the importance of having a foreign contingent to monitor and control the situation, conduct joint exercises, and deter potential renewed Russian aggression.

“No one wants to drag other countries into the war,” Zelenskyy said. “A contingent is very important for control".

He noted the importance of diplomacy but noted, “Only diplomacy that is based on the strength of the country itself and all of its partners can be powerful.”

Macron has talked about the possible deployment of European troops to Ukraine as part of security guarantees and has been driving the effort to form a “coalition of the willing” with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Macron is set to host 31 delegations around the table Thursday morning at the presidential Elysee Palace.

Russia has warned it will not accept any troops from NATO members as potential peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown, came under the “most massive kamikaze drone attack since the beginning of the war” on Tuesday night, the city administration head, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on Telegram.

Although no one was killed or injured, civilian infrastructure including warehouses, an administration building and a fire station was widely targeted, Vikul said. Multiple fires were sparked across the city, he said.

“Everyone is alive, thank God. It’s truly a miracle. The destruction is significant,” Vilkul said.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

Workers of DTEK company clear the rubble during repair works of a substation destroyed by a Russian drone strike in undisclosed location, Ukraine, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A worker of DTEK company walks in front of a transformer of a substation destroyed by a Russian drone strike in undisclosed location, Ukraine, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A worker of DTEK company walks in front of transformers of a substation destroyed by a Russian drone strike in undisclosed location, Ukraine, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

The nation's public broadcasting system — decades-long home to Big Bird, Ken Burns documentaries and “All Things Considered" — faces the biggest crisis in its nearly 60-year history with President Donald Trump's order to slash federal subsidies.

A court fight seems inevitable, with the heads of PBS, NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting all suggesting Friday that Trump's order is illegal.

“We will vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American public,” said Katherine Maher, NPR's president and CEO. “We will challenge this executive order using all means available.” Her counterpart at PBS, Paula Kerger, said Trump's order was blatantly unlawful.

The public broadcasting system dates back to the late 1960s, devised as an educational and public service-oriented alternative to commercial broadcasters available at the time. In his order, Trump said the system has become politically biased and time has passed it by.

“Today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse and innovative news options,” the president said in his order, issued just before midnight Thursday. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary, but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”

Trump's order concentrates on news, and between PBS' “NewsHour” and a robust reporting corps at NPR, that's an important part of their operations. But public broadcasting also has entertainment programming, educational children's shows and Burns' historical documentaries.

PBS and NPR get about a half-billion dollars a year in public funding funneled through the private Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Roughly 70% of that goes directly to the 330 local PBS outlets and 246 NPR stations.

On average, PBS says 15% of its stations' budgets come from public funding. But there are wide variations; stations in larger markets usually get more money through philanthropy and fund drives, while smaller stations depend much more on the government.

Besides Trump's order, Congress has been considering future funding levels for the public broadcasters, and the Federal Communications Commission is questioning public broadcasting efforts at corporate underwriting, said Josh Shepperd, author of the 2023 book “Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting.”

“It's a three-pronged effort that is frankly very smart in its institutional understanding,” Shepperd said. “They're not just going after programs that they don't like. They're going after the operations and the infrastructure that makes it possible to even air the programming.”

Trump's order instructs the CPB and other government agencies to “cease Federal funding” for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing. Separate from the CPB grant, for example, PBS gets a grant from the U.S. Department of Education for programming that helps build the reading, math and science skills for children age 2 to 8, particularly in poor areas.

The administration's plan might not threaten your favorite program — Burns gets plenty of corporate and philanthropic support — but it may impact local programming and potential growth, Shepperd said.

Congressional Republicans aired some of their grievances about public broadcasting to Kerger and Maher at a public hearing in March. Such complaints have been common over the years, but the broadcasters have avoided funding cuts, in large part because members of Congress don't want to be seen as responsible if a station in their district shuts down. Who wants to be the public official who killed “Sesame Street”?

Also, public pressure from constituents is minimized because most Republicans don't watch PBS or listen to NPR, said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center. “I have this morning habit of listening to NPR on my commute,” Graham said. “I yell at the radio.”

For years, Graham's group has issued reports with examples of what it says is bias against conservatives. For example, during an 18-month period that ended last November, his researchers counted 162 examples of PBS journalists or contributors making reference labeling some politicians “far right” or some variation, with only six called “far left.”

He said he's not trying to shut down these stations, but resists them receiving public money.

“Let the people who listen to it do the funding,” Graham said.

At a board meeting Friday, CPB president and CEO Pat Harrison said her agency has taken bias concerns seriously. It has increased investments in fact-based local journalism, and provided a grant to NPR to make changes in its newsroom to address issues of bias.

The court fight over public broadcasting has already begun. The president earlier this week said he was firing three of the five remaining CPB board members — threatening its ability to do any work — and was immediately sued by the CPB to stop it.

The executive order is also the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with — particularly those related to media.

Since taking office in January for a second term, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agree to eliminate diversity programs and other measures he has found objectionable.

The move against PBS and NPR comes as Trump's administration works to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which were designed to model independent news gathering globally in societies that restrict the press.

Those efforts have faced pushback from federal courts, which have ruled in some cases that the Trump administration may have overstepped its authority in holding back funds appropriated to the outlets by Congress.

AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order establishing the Religious Liberty Commission, during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - The headquarters for National Public Radio (NPR) is seen in Washington, April 15, 2013. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - Paula Kerger, President and CEO at PBS, speaks at the executive session during the PBS Winter 2020 TCA Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena, Jan. 10, 2020, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)