Kremlin rejects 60-day truce offer and refuses to comment on Trump’s ‘energy ceasefire’ – Europe live
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2h agoKremlin rejects Zelenskyy's idea of a 60-day ceasefire and refuses to comment on Trump's 'energy truce'
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said Russia rejects the idea of a temporary ceasefire, telling reporters that Moscow wanted a long-term peace deal instead.
“In the Kremlin, both President Putin and officials at other levels have repeatedly stated that we do not want a ceasefire,” said Peskov. “We want long-term peace and are prepared to do everything possible to achieve it.“
Peskov’s comments were a rejection of a 60-day ceasefire idea proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday to allow his country to hold presidential elections. Kyiv has accused Russia of violating temporary truces when ceasefires between the two sides have been agreed to in the past.
Peskov was asked to comment on Trump’s self-declared “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine and refused to be drawn on it, only saying:
double quotation markContacts continue. As soon as we have something to say on the matter, we will inform you.
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Kremlin rejects Zelenskyy's idea of a 60-day ceasefire and refuses to comment on Trump's 'energy truce'
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Nobel Prize for Economics awarded to Hall and Woodford
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We learnt about Trump's energy ceasefire declaration through the media, Zelenskyy says
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We are ready to respect an energy ceasefire if Russia does, Zelenskyy says
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Ukraine says Russia violated Trump's 'energy ceasefire'
Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks killed six people in two Ukrainian cities yesterday.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, a strike on a grocery store killed three people and injured 20 others, including two children, the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said.
Footage released by the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office captured the moment of the strike, showing debris flying through the air and fires breaking out as car alarms sounded.
An “unprecedented” cyber-attack is behind the shutdown of refrigerator units in multiple French supermarkets, according to the chief executive of Cooperative U, one of the chains affected.
At least 150 Intermarche shops were targeted, along with almost 100 Cooperative U outlets, AFP reports. Paris prosecutors confirmed the attack, with media reporting that hackers were “managing to remotely trigger the forced defrosting of the refrigeration systems in numerous stores.”
Reuters is carrying some further quotes from Nato’s supreme allied commander for Europe, Gen Alexus Grynkewich, about how the alliance says it would deal with an attack on Nato territory. He told the audience at the Warsaw Security Forum:
If someone is foolish enough to attack us, we will fight. We will stop the attack and deny them the ability to achieve their objectives, whatever those might be. We will, in short, ensure any attack, against any ally, proves utterly futile.
Should the adversary choose to press the attack or commit his reserves, we will break the warfighting system engaged against us. This includes not just the attacking force itself, but anything and everything that supports, sustains, and controls that force.
The US general is speaking just days after president Donald Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel.
Nato’s supreme allied commander for Europe, Gen Alexus Grynkewich has been outlining what he describes as the Nato “theory of victory”, in which he says Nato forces would block, then blunt, then break any aggressive move against the alliance.
While stressing that he did not see conflict as “inevitable”, he said at the Warsaw Security Forum it was a plan to “prepare us to execute our most sacred task – the defence of our people and our territory.”
Nato’s supreme allied commander for Europe, Gen Alexus Grynkewich, is speaking now at the Warsaw Security Forum. We will bring you any key lines that emerge.
A little more from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov here on the prospects of a limited truce agreement. He says that Russia would potentially offer a one-day truce if Ukraine were to hold elections. He said:
If they truly want to hold elections in Kyiv, then the president of Russia, the commander-in-chief, will be ready to give an order not to launch strikes on Ukraine on election day, specifically on election day.
France's high school students plan fresh protests
France’s high school students will stage new protests on Tuesday, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency is reporting,
A government source told journalists last week that the cost for damage caused by the demonstrations, which have shaken an unpopular government trying to reduce a ballooning budget deficit, was already “at least 30 million euros”.
Widespread disillusionment has seen young people protest over recent weeks against what they say is underfunding and neglect of the education system, with the demonstrations marred by often violent clashes that have injured hundreds.
Trying to appease the student’s demands, the government announced last week that about 3,000 substitute teachers would be deployed in the coming days to replace absent staff at the 114 worst-affected high schools.
But the Union of High School students described the initial announcements as “crumbs” and maintain their demand for an extra €10m (£8.4m) to be invested in the country’s lycees, where students – most between 15 and 18 – complete their high school education.
On Friday, the government noted a drop in the number of blockades and meetings outside the country’s lycees. More than 96% were opening on Friday, the education ministry said, but now a new stage of the campaign for improved conditions could mark a turning point in the protests.
The EU has added almost 1,600 new individuals and entities to its sanctions blacklist over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“This is the single largest expansion of our sanctions list since Russia started its war,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. She added:
double quotation markEurope is again showing a united front. More than half are connected to the production chain for ballistic missiles.
We are making it significantly harder, slower and more expensive for Russia to produce the weapons it uses to kill Ukrainians.
Angelique Chrisafis
The European lawmaker Raphaël Glucksmann has urged the French centre left to wage an “existential battle” to prevent Marine Le Pen’s far right winning the 2027 presidential election after he was chosen as the social democrat candidate for the presidency.
“We’ve got to rid our hearts of the spirit of defeat,” Glucksmann, the founder of the small party Place Publique, said on Monday morning after his decisive win in a centre-left primary race held by the Socialist party.
In his first interview since being designated a presidential candidate on Sunday night, Glucksmann told France Inter radio that the country was living in a “historic moment”, with the far right at the gates of power. He said the 2027 presidential election campaign would be brutal and “like no other we have ever experienced”. He said it would be unbearable to have a centre left “that doesn’t believe in victory”, adding that he could restore a “pride in social democracy”.
At present the centre left sits substantially behind the far right in the polls and also trails the radical left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is polling high but with whom Glucksmann refuses to work. You can read more here:
Kremlin rejects Zelenskyy's idea of a 60-day ceasefire and refuses to comment on Trump's 'energy truce'
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said Russia rejects the idea of a temporary ceasefire, telling reporters that Moscow wanted a long-term peace deal instead.
“In the Kremlin, both President Putin and officials at other levels have repeatedly stated that we do not want a ceasefire,” said Peskov. “We want long-term peace and are prepared to do everything possible to achieve it.“
Peskov’s comments were a rejection of a 60-day ceasefire idea proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday to allow his country to hold presidential elections. Kyiv has accused Russia of violating temporary truces when ceasefires between the two sides have been agreed to in the past.
Peskov was asked to comment on Trump’s self-declared “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine and refused to be drawn on it, only saying:
double quotation markContacts continue. As soon as we have something to say on the matter, we will inform you.
Merz’s government plunged into further crisis after key minister's surprise resignation
In other news, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government came under renewed pressure this morning after a key minister from its junior coalition partner, the SPD, unexpectedly quit.
Baerbel Bas, labour minister and co-leader of the centre-left SPD, cited personal reasons for her resignation, saying she needed time to grieve after the death of her stepdaughter.
But she also criticised Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is in crisis after heavy recent electoral defeats, notably the far-right AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt last month.
“I must unfortunately note that the public attacks against me – regrettably including those from within the ranks of our coalition partner – have continued to intensify during this difficult time for me personally,” Bas said. She will reportedly replaced as labour minister by Alexander Schweitzer, one of the SPD’s vice-chairs.
The resignation comes amid turmoil for the government, which is grappling with a sluggish economy and low poll ratings.
Nobel Prize for Economics awarded to Hall and Woodford
Graeme Wearden
The Nobel Prize for economics has been awarded to Robert E Hall and Michael Woodford, for their work on the “microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation”.
[Reminder: As we flagged earlier, Woodford was among the predicted winners – he’s one of the architects of modern forward guidance, the idea that central banks can control the economy through influencing public expectations about inflation, rather than just through interest rates.]
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is worth 12 million Swedish kronor (£900,000), plus the glory of course, and the knowledge that every pronouncement you make now comes with the authority of a Nobel Prize winner.
You can read more in our live blog here:
We learnt about Trump's energy ceasefire declaration through the media, Zelenskyy says
Zelenskyy said Trump’s energy ceasefire announcement caught him by surprise, first hearing about it through the media.
double quotation markNo, we did not know about that. We’ve learned that from the media as well that the president of the United States has secured an energy ceasefire.
I thought perhaps their team reached out to the Russians. I think they are in constant contact in a certain format.
During a Q&A with journalists, Zelenskyy said he’s ready to find ways to alter the constitution to be able to hold elections “very quickly” if a “full” energy ceasefire is implemented. He said this may require “difficult (legislative) solutions”.
“As of now, it is very difficult because of the security level in our cities and villages and communities. It is also impossible now because of our military. More than a million people who must vote – but how will they vote while being on the frontline?”
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the country has been under martial law, meaning elections are suspended.
But Donald Trump, under pressure ahead of the November elections, said on Saturday it was time for Ukraine to get a new president, suggesting Zelenskyy has not done enough to end the war and blaming him for high diesel prices in the US, even though they have largely been affected by his war on Iran.
Jennifer Rankin
The Baltic states have reacted sceptically to Donald Trump’s diesel deal with Vladimir Putin and the US president’s so-called energy ceasefire.
Lithuania’s foreign minister, Keʂtutis Budrys, said Trump’s diesel deal with Vladimir Putin was not helpful. Budrys said:
double quotation markThis deal doesn’t help, neither the crisis of the oil products, nor the unity within the transatlantic community when it concerns Russia. And it is not the European way. Our way is to increase pressure because we already see how it works.
His Estonian counterpart, Margus Tsakhna, gave a similar assessment: “I don’t think that in real life this diesel deal is actually going to change anything on the oil price or diesel price in the market.” He drew a link between US domestic politics and the upcoming midterms.
Estonia’s foreign minister was also sceptical about Trump’s self-proclaimed energy ceasefire. Tsakhna said:
double quotation mark[The] energy ceasefire is not working as President Zelenskyy has said as well. And Russia is really putting more attacks against Ukraine. So what we need to do in Europe, we need to focus on what we can do.
He cited EU sanctions against 1,600 Russian individuals and entities that are due to be signed off later today by the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers, the largest ever-listing of its kind.
Energy ceasefire could be 'major step' towards ending the war if US makes Russia honour it, Zelenskyy says
Zelenskyy says Ukraine is waiting for the specific details of the “conversation” between the US and Russia after the latest peace talks.
On Friday, negotiators from the US, Ukraine and European countries also held talks in Miami aimed at reaching agreement on a unified peace proposal in the coming weeks that could be presented to Russia.
Zelenskyy said in his address that the energy ceasefire could be a “major step” toward ending the war if Trump makes sure Putin honours it.
The Ukrainian leader says Kyiv needs the US to apply real pressure on the Kremlin, not sanction relief or “concessions”.
We are ready to respect an energy ceasefire if Russia does, Zelenskyy says
Zelenskyy said Russia is trying to tactically use the period of cold weather against Ukraine, targeting the country’s power plants and power grids.
“This winter if Russia does not agree to an energy ceasefire, we will respond,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he supports Trump’s energy ceasefire proposal, but vows that if Russia doesn’t agree to it, then Ukraine “will respond”.
“If Russia wants us to stop our long-range strikes against its oil refineries and oil exports, then Russia must stop its strikes against our energy system and critical infrastructure, and stop killing our people. This is only fair,” Zelenskyy said.
“We are ready to respect an energy ceasefire if Russia is ready to do the same. We agree, if they agree. And we have already shown that we mean it. Last night, Russian oil refineries were not burning but at midnight a Russian jet powered Shahed strike against a production facility in Ukraine.”