Arab News | Ukraine pauses refinery strikes after Trump pressure as Russian attacks kill at least 20

KYIV: Ukraine has reportedly suspended strikes on Russian oil refineries following pressure from US President Donald Trump, even as Russian forces continued pounding Ukrainian cities, killing at least 20 people in a wave of drone and missile attacks, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the military operations, that the unofficial pause in Ukrainian attacks began early last week and was expected to remain in place until after the US midterm elections, potentially extending deeper into November.

Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report.

The reported suspension comes as Russia continues its attacks on Ukrainian civilian and critical infrastructure, with a Russian drone strike on a crowded railway platform in the central city of Dnipro killing at least 14 people on Thursday.

Five other people were killed in daytime attacks on the northern city of Chernihiv and the central city of Kremenchuk, while a late-evening Russian missile strike on Kyiv killed another person, bringing the reported death toll to at least 20.

The latest attacks came despite renewed diplomatic efforts to revive US-backed negotiations to end the war, now in its fourth year.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergiy Koretskyi accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians.

“Russia is deliberately hunting civilians: on trains, at stations, in residential buildings,” he said in a statement on Telegram, adding that there could be no justification for the attacks.

In Dnipro, a jet-powered Russian drone struck a platform at the city’s main railway station as a commuter train was preparing to depart, according to state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia.

The attack left bodies scattered across the platform and damaged the area with shrapnel. Emergency workers and police recovered victims as air-raid sirens continued to sound.

A separate attack on a student dormitory in the city set the building ablaze, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said. The day’s assaults also disrupted electricity supplies to about 350,000 households.

In Chernihiv, two teenage girls were killed in a drone attack on a busy downtown street, while 23 people, including four children, were wounded, local officials said.

Three people were killed and 32 injured in attacks on residential buildings in Kremenchuk. Russian drones also struck city buses in three separate attacks in southeastern Zaporizhzhia, wounding six people.

A late-evening missile attack on Kyiv killed one person, according to the city’s military administration. Warehouses caught fire, while falling debris damaged a building on the eastern side of the Dnipro River.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Thursday’s attacks as particularly cruel and deliberate, coming at a time when people were expecting steps toward de-escalation.

He also warned that Ukrainian intelligence had detected preparations for further Russian ballistic missile strikes, urging Kyiv’s allies to provide the means to counter them.

The attacks have continued amid a six-day, US-brokered local truce in the southern Kherson region, aimed at allowing humanitarian assistance to reach the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky and enabling residents to leave if they wished.

Both Moscow and Kyiv said de-mining operations had been completed and that preparations were underway for the humanitarian mission.

The localized arrangement, however, has not stopped Russian attacks elsewhere in Ukraine.

Russian drone and missile strikes on critical infrastructure, including the country’s railway network, have disrupted civilian life and further damaged an economy already under severe pressure. Ukraine has also faced an acute shortage of air defense missiles.

The latest developments come as Washington seeks to revive negotiations to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Ukrainian officials have called on Kyiv’s international partners to increase pressure on Moscow, with new three-way discussions involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States expected next month.