By ILLIA NOVIKOV AND HANNAARHIROVA | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KYIV, Ukraine - 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."

Russia links the Black Sea deal to sanctions relief

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.