Waves of Russian drones pounded the Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, setting it ablaze in an attack that underscored Moscow’s intent to continue aerial assaults despite agreeing to a temporary pause in strikes on energy infrastructure.

Videos circulating on social media showed fires erupting in several parts of Odesa.

The regional governor, Oleh Kiper, said Russian drones struck a high-rise residential building, a shopping centre, and several infrastructure targets.

The Czech president, Petr Pavel, was in the city when Russia unleashed the drone attacks. “Significantly, it was during our meeting that the enemy once again massively attacked the Odesa region,” Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, a close ally of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on X that the strikes on Odesa “once again showed” that Russia “sincerely does not want peace”.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed in principle to a limited ceasefire after the US president, Donald Trump, spoke to the countries’ leaders this week. But uncertainty remains about how or when the part-ceasefire will take effect as Ukraine and Russia prepare to send delegations to Riyadh next week for parallel talks with the US.

It was immediately clear that the three parties had different views about what the pact entailed, with the White House saying “energy and infrastructure” would be covered, the Kremlin saying the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure”, and Zelenskyy saying he would also like railways and ports protected.

A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Ukraine hoped to secure a part-ceasefire at the talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday. “We still want to agree on a ceasefire, at least on what we have proposed,” the source said, referring to calls for a halt to strikes on energy sites, civilian infrastructure and attacks in the Black Sea.

The source added it was “unclear” when any ceasefire could be implemented. “There have been no reciprocal steps from the Russians,” they said. “We need to agree on the main thing: what objects and what control. The Americans have enormous intelligence capabilities, so they see a lot,” they added.

On Friday, the Kremlin claimed Vladimir Putin’s order for Russian forces to temporarily halt their attacks on energy infrastructure remained in force, but stressed the agreement only covered “energy infrastructure” and not “energy and infrastructure”.

Russia also accused Ukraine of violating the part-ceasefire, citing a strike that took place before Zelenskyy formally agreed to the truce.

Moscow’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, told Russia’s Channel One on Thursday evening that Ukraine had breached a proposed 30-day ceasefire on energy infrastructure by striking a Russian oil depot on Tuesday night, though that strike came before Zelenskyy’s call with Trump the next day where he agreed in principle to the US-brokered proposal.

The Ukrainian side has accused Russia of violating its pledges. Hours after Putin’s phone call with Trump on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said there had been “hits, specifically on civilian infrastructure”, including a hospital in Sumy.

Moscow appeared to be exploiting the window before any ceasefire takes hold, launching drones at Odesa as well as shelling the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

In a separate incident, a pumping station that serves as a critical hub for Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine caught fire on Friday morning, with both sides trading blame. Moscow accused Ukraine of striking the facility, while Ukraine’s general staff denied responsibility, claiming instead that it had been “repeatedly shelled by the Russians themselves”.

Russia’s investigative committee said the gas station “was significantly damaged in the blast”.

While much of Europe has cut its reliance on Russian gas, countries sympathetic to Moscow – including Hungary and Slovakia – still buy it, with all supplies flowing through the town of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region.

European leaders of the coalition backing Ukraine are expected to meet again next week, hoping to finalise plans to secure “credible security guarantees”.

After a meeting with western military planners near London on Thursday, Keir Starmer appeared to step back from his pledge to put boots on the ground in Ukraine, saying instead that allied forces would be deployed by sea and air in support of Kyiv’s own forces.

The Trump administration has appeared lukewarm toward the idea of European troops in Ukraine and has been reluctant to commit to supporting them if they were deployed. Moscow has repeatedly ruled out the presence of western troops in Ukraine, calling it a red line it will not tolerate.

In an interview on Thursday, Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, suggested the US might advocate for troops from Saudi Arabia or India – two countries with relatively warm ties to Moscow – to be stationed in Ukraine as part of a potential security arrangement.

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, pushed back against a reported proposal by Macron, who was said to be exploring the idea of a UN-led peacekeeping mission to protect Ukraine.

“With all due respect, the UN will not protect us from occupation or Putin’s desire to come again. We do not see the UN as an alternative to a contingent or security guarantees,” Zelenskyy said during a press conference with Pavel.