Oct 12, 2026 · 18 min · 8 segments
Has Donald Trump just negotiated a Russia/Ukraine ceasefire? Maybe? Probably not, though. Trump declared that there was an "energy ceasefire" in the Russia Ukraine War last night, which came as a…
Tom NicholasHost
So yes, according to Donald Trump, there is currently, as of yesterday evening, a ceasefire of sorts between Russia and Ukraine.
Uh, Trump didn't really elaborate on the matter too much, o- other than framing it as an energy ceasefire, which one has to kind of decode as effectively being an agreement for both Ukraine and Russia to stop attacking each other's energy infrastructure.
Zelensky and Ukraine are obviously pretty hesitant to do that with any kind of commitment from Russia, as incapacitating Russia's ability to refine oil, uh, both to boost its economy by, um, using at home and exporting abroad, and also as part of their efforts to kind of refine oil for their own military to, for use in the invasion of Ukraine.
Trump then reportedly threatened to pause the provision of military aid from the US to Ukraine in the form of weapons purchases, as well as intelligence sharing, unless the Ukrainian government was willing to agree to stopping those long-range strikes.
But if their reluctant to do so risks painting Ukrainians as the main holdout here, it didn't help matters that not long after Trump's post on Truth Social announcing this energy ceasefire, Russia basically immediately bombed several Ukrainian power plants, including one in Kyiv and another in Kharkiv, near the Russian border, suggesting that they weren't exactly on board with an energy [laughs] ceasefire either.
And yet, despite that, Zelensky has said this morning that he would be open to some sort of energy ceasefire, again, that phrase we keep using, if Russia [laughs] is up for it too.
Although Ukraine has been attempting to negotiate a limited ceasefire with Russia for some time.
His suggestion that he would like to hold elections is in part a result of the fact that Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that Zelensky himself should either stand down or that the Ukrainian people should vote him out.
However, due to Russia's invasion, Ukraine has been under martial law since early 2022, uh, and one outcome of that martial law is that elections are paused.
Half of Ukrainians polled think that he shouldn't run for a second term whenever new elections do come about, as a result of various controversies surrounding corruption in his government.
For his part, Zelensky has said that he would be unlikely to stand again in peacetime, but probably would stand again if elections were held during wartime.
As an extra caveat to that, although, uh, over half of Ukrainians, or just over half of Ukrainians would like him to not stand, uh, Zelensky does remain the single, uh, potential presidential candidate with the most support in polls at around or just under 30%.
Voters who don't like Zelensky are kind of split amongst many, many other candidates.
And yet, today Moscow has suggested that it would only agree to a single one-day, uh, pause, which honestly is probably just trolling at this point.
And on an energy ceasefire more broadly, Moscow has currently said very little at all.
So yes, according to Donald Trump, there is currently, as of yesterday evening, a ceasefire of sorts between Russia and Ukraine.
Uh, Trump didn't really elaborate on the matter too much, o- other than framing it as an energy ceasefire, which one has to kind of decode as effectively being an agreement for both Ukraine and Russia to stop attacking each other's energy infrastructure.
Zelensky and Ukraine are obviously pretty hesitant to do that with any kind of commitment from Russia, as incapacitating Russia's ability to refine oil, uh, both to boost its economy by, um, using at home and exporting abroad, and also as part of their efforts to kind of refine oil for their own military to, for use in the invasion of Ukraine.
Trump then reportedly threatened to pause the provision of military aid from the US to Ukraine in the form of weapons purchases, as well as intelligence sharing, unless the Ukrainian government was willing to agree to stopping those long-range strikes.
But if their reluctant to do so risks painting Ukrainians as the main holdout here, it didn't help matters that not long after Trump's post on Truth Social announcing this energy ceasefire, Russia basically immediately bombed several Ukrainian power plants, including one in Kyiv and another in Kharkiv, near the Russian border, suggesting that they weren't exactly on board with an energy [laughs] ceasefire either.
And yet, despite that, Zelensky has said this morning that he would be open to some sort of energy ceasefire, again, that phrase we keep using, if Russia [laughs] is up for it too.
Although Ukraine has been attempting to negotiate a limited ceasefire with Russia for some time.
His suggestion that he would like to hold elections is in part a result of the fact that Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that Zelensky himself should either stand down or that the Ukrainian people should vote him out.
However, due to Russia's invasion, Ukraine has been under martial law since early 2022, uh, and one outcome of that martial law is that elections are paused.
Half of Ukrainians polled think that he shouldn't run for a second term whenever new elections do come about, as a result of various controversies surrounding corruption in his government.
For his part, Zelensky has said that he would be unlikely to stand again in peacetime, but probably would stand again if elections were held during wartime.
As an extra caveat to that, although, uh, over half of Ukrainians, or just over half of Ukrainians would like him to not stand, uh, Zelensky does remain the single, uh, potential presidential candidate with the most support in polls at around or just under 30%.
Voters who don't like Zelensky are kind of split amongst many, many other candidates.
And yet, today Moscow has suggested that it would only agree to a single one-day, uh, pause, which honestly is probably just trolling at this point.
And on an energy ceasefire more broadly, Moscow has currently said very little at all.
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