The Kremlin has rejected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's call for a 60-day ceasefire to let Ukraine hold a presidential election, but said Vladimir Putin would order the army not to strike Ukraine on polling day itself, TASS reported on October 12.
"If Kiev truly wants to hold elections, then the Russian president, as supreme commander-in-chief, will be ready to order the army not to strike Ukraine on election day. Specifically on election day - this is a very important clarification," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The reply answers the offer Zelenskiy made on October 11, a day after US President Donald Trump said it was time for Ukraine to "get a new president" who could "make a deal". Ukrainian law bars elections under martial law, and Zelenskiy has made a full ceasefire his condition for a vote: "Total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organize elections," he said. A one-day pause would cover voting day only, not the preceding campaign period. Moscow put forward the same one-day formula in February, when Zelenskiy called it absurd, LIGA.net reported at the time.
"We don't need a ceasefire but a lasting peace that will endure for generations," Peskov said. He said Russia had been willing to resume peace talks straight after its own State Duma elections in September, but Ukraine had responded with strikes on Moscow, attacks on polling stations and the killing of several members of district election commissions in the occupied territories Moscow calls its "new regions". That, he said, was when Putin decided to think again about when to return to the negotiating table.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov struck the same note the same day, telling a news conference in Moscow that Zelenskiy "has not earned" a respite in the fighting. "I do not think we will ever again be had by assurances and promises," Lavrov said after talks with Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, adding that Russia would keep pursuing the aims of what it calls its special military operation.
Lavrov also welcomed the start of US-mediated direct talks between Israel and Lebanon and called for an immediate ceasefire there, saying the Israeli army's use of force "grossly violates international law". Russia and Lebanon agreed to revive their intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical co-operation, which has not met since 2018, he said.