Russia just kept bombing Ukraine hours after Trump declared a ceasefire
2 hours ago · 12 October 2026Share
President Donald Trump makes an announcement on drug pricing, Tuesday, September 30, 2025, in the Oval Office. File photo. The White House · Public domain
Donald Trump just announced an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
He posted it on Truth Social a few hours ago. His words: "Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!"
No text. No terms. No timeline. Just that.
So what did Ukraine say? Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's President, told Axios the announcement "was news for me".
Read that again. The president of Ukraine says he found out about his own country's ceasefire from a social media post.
But he didn't reject it either. He wrote on X that Ukraine supports the ceasefire, that Russia needs to support it too, and that Ukraine is waiting on the details from the American side.
And here's the problem. While he was writing that, Russia was still bombing Ukraine's power grid.
Zelenskyy says Russia hit a power plant in Kharkiv after Trump's post went up. He says Ukraine's skies were, in his words, "infested with Russian 'shaheds'" that same day.
So the country Trump says agreed to stop hitting energy targets was hitting an energy target within hours of the announcement.
Moscow? Total silence. Nothing in public at all.
Now here's the part that actually matters.
Zelenskyy has his own terms. And they are not Trump's terms.
He says Ukraine will stop striking Russian oil refineries if Russia stops attacking Ukraine's energy grid. That's his trade. Not a one-line order from Washington.
He said it straight in an ABC News interview the same day: "If they want energy ceasefire, we are open for this."
He added that Ukraine would stop hitting Russian diesel in return, and called it a fair deal.
The rest of this story is for members.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held talks in Kyiv with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss energy infrastructure and pressure on Russia. President Of Ukraine from Україна · CC0
In that same interview, Zelenskyy said something even bigger. He would organise elections in Ukraine if Vladimir Putin, Russia's President, agreed to a full 60-day ceasefire. That is a much larger offer than anything Trump has claimed.
And here's the thing. Trump has done this exact move before.
About a month ago, on 14 September, he made an almost identical energy ceasefire claim. Neither Russia nor Ukraine ever confirmed it. Both sides kept fighting within days.
So why now? Two days ago, Trump announced a deal with Russia to import Russian diesel — over 300,000 tons immediately, 500,000 tons in November, a million tons after that. He lifted US sanctions to do it.
A day later, Trump said it was time for Ukraine to get a new president. He blamed Zelenskyy for high US diesel prices and for not making a deal.
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, answered that Zelenskyy has the support of the Ukrainian people, and that they have the right to decide.
So line it up. Trump struck a diesel deal with Moscow. A day later he called for Zelenskyy to be replaced. Then he announced a ceasefire Ukraine says it never agreed to.
Not everyone is on Trump's side here. Mark Carney, Canada's Prime Minister, says he gave the ceasefire his strong support when he spoke to Zelenskyy — but he has also criticised the US-Russia diesel deal for undermining stability. Zelenskyy discussed the announcement with Alexander Stubb, Finland's President, and Mark Rutte, NATO's Secretary-General, too.
Back in Washington, six senators from both parties — Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis and John Curtis, and Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Richard Blumenthal — are calling for the diesel deal to be reversed immediately.
And the fighting hasn't slowed down at all. Zelenskyy says 23 people, including four children, were killed in a Russian bombing of Zaporizhzhia the day before the ceasefire announcement. More than 30 were wounded.
Ukraine has kept hitting back too. A Ukrainian drone struck a Yandex data centre in Vladimir, Russia — the third such strike on Yandex facilities in four days.
So what don't we know? Whether Trump actually spoke to Putin before posting this. What Putin's private answer was. Whether Russia will honour any ceasefire once Ukraine signs on. Moscow hasn't said a word.
The war has run for more than four and a half years now, since February 2022. Trump has announced it's over before.
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