Kremlin Rejects Zelensky's 60-Day Ceasefire Offer as Kyiv Says Russia Broke Trump's Energy Truce

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put a condition on elections this weekend. The Kremlin turned it down within a day.

In an ABC News interview on Sunday, Oct. 11, Zelensky was responding to President Trump, who had said the day before that "it's time for Ukraine to get a new president." Zelensky said: "So please tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days off. Total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organize elections."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered on Monday, Oct. 12. "Both President Putin and officials at other levels have repeatedly stated that we do not want a ceasefire," he told reporters. "We want long-term peace and are prepared to do everything possible to achieve it."

The election question

Ukraine's constitution bars elections under martial law, which has been in force since Russia's 2022 invasion and has been repeatedly extended. Zelensky's original term expired in May 2024. Ukrainian officials point to the martial law ban as the reason no vote has been held.

Russia has pressed for an election for years and argues that the lack of one makes Zelensky an illegitimate leader. Zelensky has told the Ukrainian public the choice is theirs. "With all respect to President Trump, it's up to our society, up to our people to choose one or another leader," he said. He added that Putin also wants a change in Ukraine's leadership, and that he had raised the issue with Trump's team.

Zelensky also conceded the logistics are hard. "We are in war and how to do elections is really difficult," he said.

Trump's energy ceasefire

On Sunday morning, Trump posted on social media: "Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!"

Zelensky said Kyiv had not known about the proposal in advance. He wrote that Ukraine supports the ceasefire and was awaiting details from the American side.

The Kremlin has not confirmed an agreement. Peskov said Monday that "contacts are ongoing," that he had "nothing to add," and that more information would come in due course. He declined to say whether the truce would cover only oil refineries.

Speaking by video to the Warsaw Security Forum on Monday, Zelensky said Russia had already broken it. He said Russia struck a power plant in Kharkiv shortly after Trump's announcement, followed by a gas production facility and a civilian gas station. He said a Russian jet-powered Shahed hit the gas facility at midnight, after a night in which Russian refineries were not burning.

"We agree if they agree, and we have already shown that we mean it," Zelensky said. Russia has not responded to the specific allegation.

Zelensky also described the week before the announcement. Russia, he said, attacked Ukraine's power sector 196 times and oil and gas facilities 20 times, and killed 153 civilians. Those figures are his own and are unverified here.

The diesel fight

The ceasefire talk follows a Trump-Putin call and a deal to supply markets with Russian diesel. Trump announced Friday, Oct. 9, that he would waive sanctions on a large quantity of Russian diesel to lower fuel prices ahead of the November midterms.

Seven senators, four of them Republicans, issued a statement over the weekend urging the administration to "reverse course." They noted that "Congress explicitly banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to prevent American dollars from financing Putin's brutal war against Ukraine."

Zelensky called the diesel arrangement a "birthday gift" to Putin that would help Russia "kill us, kill our children." He said the deal gives Putin money to finance the war.

Who is to blame for prices

Trump used his Saturday remarks to attack Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries. He warned they could worsen global fuel shortages and hurt American farmers and ranchers.

Zelensky rejected that explanation. He said rising prices stem from the war in the Middle East and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and that "everybody understands it." He said it is "more difficult to stop Putin than to pressure others."

He also answered a comment from Elon Musk that Zelensky "has gone too far."

Zelensky laid out a trade: if Russia stops hitting Ukraine's energy facilities and civilians, Ukraine will stop hitting Russian refineries. "It's fair deal. It's not the best deal," he said. "But the first step is ceasefire, energy ceasefire."

What comes next

Ukraine says it will honor an energy truce if Russia does. Russia has said nothing publicly about its terms and has called a general ceasefire a non-starter. Kyiv is still waiting for details from Washington on how the arrangement was reached and what it covers. The White House has not yet said what it will do about the Kremlin's refusal of the 60-day proposal.