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United States President Donald Trump on October 11 announced an immediate energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, claiming both sides had agreed to stop attacks on infrastructure.
“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed surprise at the announcement, telling Axios he had not been informed of the purported agreement.
“The ceasefire announcement was news for me,” he said, noting that Ukraine would accept it if Russia agreed to comply.
“If President Trump negotiated it with Putin — please tell us when the ceasefire begins. We are ready and we will accept it,” he added.
Zelensky later accused Russia of continuing to attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure after Trump’s announcement. In a post on X, he said he had briefed Trump on what he called the “brutal Russian strikes that continue unabated.”
A Russian drone had struck a power plant in Kyiv, causing power outages across several districts, he claimed, followed by attacks on energy facilities in the Kharkiv region.
“And all of this happened AFTER the President of the United States made his statement about an energy ceasefire,” Zelensky wrote.
In his evening address, he also reported a strike on a combined heat and power plant in Kharkiv. He said Russia had carried out more than 200 strikes on Ukrainian electricity-generation and transmission facilities over the preceding week, along with 17 attacks on oil and gas installations.
Moscow has not yet publicly commented on Trump’s announcement, leaving it unclear whether Russia accepted the proposed ceasefire or intended to observe it.
The announcement came amid a widening dispute between Trump and Kyiv over Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries, with the U.S. president demanding that Ukraine halt the strikes.
The Financial Times reported right after Trump’s announcement that Washington had threatened to restrict Ukraine’s access to U.S.-made weapons and intelligence sharing unless Kyiv stopped attacking Russian energy infrastructure.
Citing European officials, the newspaper reported that U.S. officials had warned that the U.S. could block Ukraine’s access to the NATO-managed Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List mechanism, known as PURL, through which allied countries fund purchases of American weapons for Kyiv.
The surprise ceasefire announcement came amid a broader shift in Washington’s energy policy toward Moscow, following a diesel supply deal with Russia and temporary sanctions waivers for certain fuel shipments. With the administration simultaneously pressing Kyiv to halt refinery strikes, Trump appears to be growing impatient with Zelensky.
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