Zelensky responds to Trump’s energy ceasefire announcement

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the announcement of an energy ceasefire came as news to him, but that Kyiv will agree if Russia does. “If President Trump has agreed this with Putin, please let us know when the ceasefire begins — we are ready and will accept it,” he told Axios journalist Barak Ravid.

Later, on the social network X, Zelensky wrote that he had discussed the energy ceasefire with NATO chief Mark Rutte, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. “Ukraine supports this ceasefire, and it is important that Russia supports it too. We are waiting for details from the American side,” he said.

What Trump announced

On Sunday, Trump said on his social network Truth Social that an energy ceasefire had come into force between Russia and Ukraine: according to him, both sides had agreed. Moscow has not yet commented on the statement. The state news agency TASS merely relayed it under the headline “Trump claims Russia and Ukraine have agreed to an energy ceasefire.”

Zelensky had himself earlier proposed such a format to Moscow and set a condition: Ukraine stops striking Russian oil refineries if Russia stops bombing Ukrainian energy infrastructure. He made the offer in response to growing US diplomatic pressure.

Reaction from Moscow and Europe

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also spoke with Zelensky. She said she fully backed the president’s call for a ceasefire that would protect global food supplies and energy infrastructure in Ukraine and Russia. According to her, the EU will provide Kyiv with additional funds for drones and missiles in the coming days.

Moscow long gave no official answer to the Ukrainian proposal, but in private Russian representatives signalled that they were ready to discuss the initiative, while linking a ceasefire to the easing of anti-Russian sanctions. On Friday, Trump announced an “extremely successful conversation” and an agreement with Putin to lift sanctions on Russian oil. Zelensky sharply criticised the decision, calling it absolutely catastrophic. According to him, the Ukrainian team, which held talks with the Americans in Miami the same day, was used as a “screen” for Trump’s fuel-supply deals with Putin.

On Saturday, Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said that in his conversation with Trump, Putin rejected peace talks and stressed that Russia will continue fighting until it achieves “all of its goals”.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz