Zelenskyy says Russia will not accept energy ceasefire as strikes are reported

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, October 12, that Russia appeared unwilling to accept a proposed pause in attacks on energy infrastructure, after Ukraine reported strikes on energy sites following US President Donald Trump’s Sunday announcement of an immediate Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire. Moscow has not publicly confirmed that it agreed to the pause, leaving its status unclear.

Trump said on October 11 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an energy ceasefire taking effect immediately. His brief announcement gave no terms beyond a call not to break it. Zelenskyy initially welcomed the announcement, saying Kyiv was ready to refrain from striking Russian energy infrastructure if Moscow showed the same readiness.

By Monday, Zelenskyy was describing attacks he said had followed that announcement. In a post on X reported by Reuters, he said Russia was unwilling to accept the US-proposed pause and intended to continue striking energy targets. That is Ukraine’s assessment of Russia’s position, rather than confirmation that both sides had agreed to terms and one had broken them.

What Ukraine reported after Trump’s announcement

At the Warsaw Security Forum on Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had been ‘horribly surprised’ by reported Russian strikes on a power plant in Kharkiv, a gas production facility and a civilian gas station. The Ukrainian presidential office had confirmed that a Kharkiv power plant was attacked after Trump’s Sunday announcement, according to the Associated Press.

Zelenskyy told Fox News that Ukraine had refrained from striking Russian energy sites since Trump’s announcement. He called an energy ceasefire ‘a good first step’ toward ending the war. His description of the proposal was reciprocal: each side would stop attacking the other’s energy infrastructure. He also said he was unsure whether Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to accept it.

Ukraine’s offer would affect its own campaign against Russian energy sites, including oil refineries. Zelenskyy has said Kyiv would stop those attacks if Moscow stopped hitting Ukraine’s energy system. That conditional position is distinct from an unconditional commitment by either side, and the cited reporting does not establish an agreed start time or a way to monitor compliance.

What Trump and the Kremlin have said

Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump insisted that the two countries had agreed to the pause. Asked about the reported Russian attacks, he said there had been violations on both sides and that he would have to look into them. His remarks did not resolve the discrepancy between his announcement and the attacks reported by Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not confirm Russian acceptance. ‘Contacts are ongoing,’ he said, according to the Associated Press. Reuters likewise reported Russia’s position that discussions about a possible energy pause were continuing. The available accounts therefore establish talks and competing public claims, but no publicly confirmed Russian commitment to the pause Trump announced.

Ukraine’s European allies also expressed doubts. Reuters reported skepticism among European partners, while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the Associated Press that officials had not seen evidence Russia would stick to the proposed pause. That response reflects concern about whether the plan would work; it does not establish that a ceasefire was already in force.

Why an energy pause matters for Ukraine

Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian energy facilities during the war. Ukrainian officials have described the pressure on power and heating as ‘weaponizing winter’ as colder weather approaches. A reciprocal halt would address those attacks directly, but the accounts cited here provide no agreed written terms, monitoring arrangements or implementation mechanism that would show how such a halt would operate.

There is also a recent precedent for caution. Trump announced a similar pause involving energy infrastructure on September 14, but the Associated Press reported that the earlier proposal produced no agreement in practice. The previous announcement does not determine what will happen now, though it makes the distinction between a public proposal and an implemented agreement consequential.

The energy-only proposal is separate from Zelenskyy’s call for a wider, 60-day ceasefire. He said Ukraine could organize elections if a full ceasefire lasted that long. Reuters reported that Peskov rejected that broader proposal while describing discussions on a possible energy pause as ongoing. Neither position supplies an agreement on the narrower energy question.

For now, the confirmed development is the clash between Trump’s announcement, Ukraine’s reports of subsequent attacks and Moscow’s refusal to publicly confirm acceptance. Whether the sides will settle reciprocal terms, when any pause would begin and how violations would be assessed remain unanswered in the published accounts. Reported strikes after the announcement should therefore not be described as verified breaches of an agreed ceasefire.