The Kremlin on Monday flatly rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's offer of a 60-day ceasefire to allow presidential elections, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters in Moscow that Russia is not interested in a temporary truce.
"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 added that Moscow is not against Ukraine holding elections — President Vladimir Putin is ready to order Russian forces not to strike on election day itself if Kyiv goes ahead with a vote, the RIA news agency reported. What Russia will not give is the two-month pause Zelenskyy asked for.
The offer Moscow turned down
Zelenskyy made the offer on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, answering President Donald Trump's call a day earlier for Ukraine to get a new leader who can make a deal. Trump had also warned Zelenskyy he had "better damn well stop" authorising Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries.
"Please tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organise elections."
Speaking to RIA, Peskov said Trump's call for new leadership reflected Zelenskyy's unwillingness to make the hard decisions the war demands — the Ukrainian president, he said, must make "very consequential and very difficult decisions to stop this war."
The energy ceasefire is still being talked through
The rejection does not end the narrower deal Trump announced last week. Peskov confirmed contacts are ongoing on the US-backed energy ceasefire, though he declined to say whether the arrangement would cover only oil refineries. On the ground, the picture is uglier: Zelenskyy said Russia attacked six energy facilities across Ukraine on Monday, wounding 33 people, and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv stands ready for a mutual energy ceasefire. French President Emmanuel Macron said he has seen no sign in the last 48 hours that Russia is respecting one.
Underneath it all sits the same dispute: Moscow argues that with no elections held, Zelenskyy is an illegitimate leader, while Ukrainian law prohibits elections in wartime. Trump has been pressing both tracks at once — an energy truce now, elections next. On the bigger ceasefire, Moscow's answer is in: "We do not want a ceasefire."
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