Kremlin rejects 60-day truce for Ukrainian elections, won't confirm Trump's energy ceasefire

Kremlin rejects the 60-day proposal

The Kremlin on Monday, 12 October, rejected a 60-day ceasefire proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to allow Ukraine to hold presidential elections, saying it wanted an overall peace deal instead. Zelenskiy made the proposal in an interview with ABC's 'This Week' aired on Sunday, 11 October. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia wanted a long-term peace deal rather than a temporary ceasefire.

Please tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organise elections.

Peskov said Putin and officials at other levels had repeatedly stated that Russia does not want a ceasefire.

In the Kremlin, both President Putin and officials at other levels have repeatedly stated that we do not want a ceasefire. We want long-term peace and are prepared to do everything possible to achieve it.

Peskov also said Putin would be ready to order no strikes on Ukraine on polling day if Kyiv really intends to hold elections. Russia has long pressed Ukraine to hold elections, arguing that without them Zelenskiy is an illegitimate leader, while Ukrainian law prohibits elections in wartime. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Zelenskiy did not deserve such a pause and that Moscow would not again be bought off with assurances and promises. He also argued that European states could use any pause to supply Ukraine with new weapons, and called Zelenskiy's expressed surprise at Trump's announcement false.

An energy ceasefire with unclear terms

On Sunday, 11 October, Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an immediate halt to attacks on each other's energy infrastructure, but he gave no details. Trump has also said it is time for Ukraine to have a new president and criticised the absence of elections there. Zelenskiy said Ukraine supports the truce and wrote on Telegram:

Ukraine supports the ceasefire, and it is important that Russia support it as well. We are awaiting details from the American side.

Zelenskiy said he learned of the announcement from the media, and he discussed it with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finnish President Alex Stubb. Axios later reported that Trump's statement referred only to halting attacks on refineries by both sides. Trump had made a similar claim in a social media post on 14 September, and nothing came of it. On 12 October the Kremlin said it could not yet say anything about the energy truce and did not confirm whether it had been agreed.

Strikes on energy targets continue

Zelenskiy said Russian forces kept attacking energy targets regardless of the announcement. In his nightly video address on Sunday, 11 October, he said a strike had hit the joint heating and power plant in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and that there had been more than 200 strikes on Ukrainian generating capacity in the week to 11 October, plus 17 on oil and gas installations. On Monday, 12 October, Zelenskiy wrote on X that Russia had struck six energy facilities in Ukraine that day. He said a Russian jet-powered Shahed drone hit a gas production facility at midnight. He also said Ukraine has no large oil reserves and that its only refinery was seriously damaged by Russian attacks, while Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy sites would stop if Russia halted its attacks on Ukraine's energy system. A Russian strike near Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine killed at least three members of one family on 12 October, according to local authorities.

EU reaction

Helen McEntee, speaking in Luxembourg at the EU Foreign Affairs Council, said the weekend announcements were concerning and that Russia's aggression against Ukraine would be discussed by EU foreign ministers. She said that keeping pressure on Russia was the priority.

What we need to do is refocus and redouble our efforts in keeping pressure on Russia, that has to be our priority, and that is Europe's priority.

Asked about the latest EU sanctions package, she said Ireland had supported every sanctions package and every measure put forward by the commission, and that Ireland would keep channels open with the US because the goal would not be achievable without US support.