--- title: "Trump Posts an ‘Energy Ceasefire’; Kyiv Reads It Online and Russian Drones Keep Flying" description: "Zelenskyy says Ukraine will hold its fire if Russia does. Hours after the post, he reported new Russian strikes on power plants" author: "Jan Sokol" published: 2026-10-11T19:32:40Z modified: 2026-10-11T21:46:01Z url: https://rews.cc/a/trump-declares-a-russia-ukraine-energy-ceasefire-zelenskyy-s-51d3ca language: en tags: ["trump", "ukraine", "russia", "energy", "war", "world"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Trump Posts an ‘Energy Ceasefire’; Kyiv Reads It Online and Russian Drones Keep Flying *Zelenskyy says Ukraine will hold its fire if Russia does. Hours after the post, he reported new Russian strikes on power plants* By Jan Sokol · October 11, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/trump-declares-a-russia-ukraine-energy-ceasefire-zelenskyy-s-51d3ca ## In brief - Trump announced an immediate Russia-Ukraine ‘energy ceasefire’ on Truth Social on 11 October, giving no details - Ukrainian officials said they learned of it from the post; Zelensky said Ukraine supports it if Russia does too - The post followed a U.S.-Russia diesel deal and Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine should get a new leader - The Kremlin did not comment; the Kyiv Independent reported Russia wants sanctions relief tied to any energy truce - Zelensky said Russia struck power facilities after the announcement, including Kharkiv’s CHP-5 plant On Sunday morning, 11 October, one sentence on Truth Social declared part of a war suspended. The war in question had been running since Russia’s invasion of 2022. Its front lines barely move these days, and the fighting has gone up into the sky, aimed at power stations and refineries. > “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP.” That was the whole of it, as [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/11/trump-says-ukraine-russia-agree-to-energy-ceasefire-2). The post gave no list of protected facilities, no start time beyond “immediately”, no account of who had signed what or where. When [CNBC asked the White House](https://cnbc.com/2026/10/11/trump-energy-ceasefire-russia-ukraine-zelenskyy.html) for details, it was referred back to the post. CNBC added that it was unclear whether either side had actually agreed to a truce. ## “We just read it as you did” In Kyiv the news came in the same way it reached everyone else. A source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky [told CNN](https://cnn.com/2026/10/11/politics/trump-ukraine-russia-energy-ceasefire) the announcement was a surprise. Asked about the post, another Ukrainian official said: “We just read it as you did.” Zelensky himself [told Axios](https://www.axios.com/2026/10/11/trump-russia-ukraine-energy-ceasefire-zelensky) that the deal “was news for me. But if Russians agree to an energy ceasefire, Ukraine will agree.” ![A white dove with an electrical plug emerges from an open blue and yellow box toward an outstretched hand against a teal background.](https://rews.cc/img/8ce6555f7a83525686e5f9b25ce19e50be1009ed.webp) Here is a thought, and it is only a thought: there is an old order of things in which the strong reach an agreement and the weak find out about it afterwards. Small countries have spent whole centuries reading about their own fate in other people’s communiqués. Today the communiqué comes as a post, and the people it concerns are told nothing in advance. Even so, Zelensky did not refuse. He wrote on X that he had spoken about the news with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Then he set out his position: “Ukraine supports the ceasefire, and it is important that Russia support it as well. We are awaiting details from the American side. For our part, Ukraine always FULLY supports steps toward de-escalation, the protection of lives, and the decisions needed to end the war and guarantee lasting peace.” He had already been asking for more than this. According to Al Jazeera, Ukraine had pressed for a full ceasefire lasting 60 days. Earlier that same Sunday, on ABC’s “This Week”, he had made his offer in plain words, as if speaking straight to Moscow: “OK, if they want energy ceasefire, we are open for this. Don’t attack us. Don’t kill our children. We will stop attacking your diesel. And I think it’s fair, fair deal.” He had also asked Trump to “give them \[a\] signal, not \[to\] attack energy infrastructure of Ukraine.” ![A cream-colored gas pump with a looping dark hose shows two tanks facing each other across cracked yellow ground against a bright blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/90fae31bbcd534c2d561ec35790db47044d96b95.webp) ## A week measured in diesel To read Sunday’s post you have to go back through the week before it. The United States is at war with Iran, and energy prices are rising around the world. Winter is coming, and so are the midterm elections in November. After a call with Vladimir Putin, Trump announced a deal to bring Russian diesel to market, with [U.S. sanctions waived until April](https://rews.cc/a/trump-says-russia-will-supply-diesel-after-putin-call-as-u-s-871e82). The deal was announced on Friday, the same day Ukrainian officials began talks in Miami with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Zelensky said the diesel deal would prolong the war. Trump answered that Ukraine should “get a new leader who can make a deal.” CNBC reported that he also blamed Zelensky for the high diesel costs threatening Republicans’ chances at the polls. Zelensky’s reply was that Ukraine would stop hitting Russian oil refineries only when Russia stopped hitting Ukraine’s electric grid. He had been saying the same for weeks: the refineries [pay for the war](https://rews.cc/a/zelenskyy-says-ukraine-will-answer-russia-s-new-doctrine-at--c7b8bc), so they are fair targets. So in the end, the ceasefire Trump proclaimed was close to the trade Kyiv had been offering. What remains unknown is what Moscow wants for it. The [Kyiv Independent reported](https://kyivindependent.com/putin-puts-a-price-on-trumps-ukraine-energy-truce/), citing U.S. and Ukrainian officials, that in private talks Russia has asked Washington for sanctions relief as part of any energy truce and wants it linked to a ceasefire in the Black Sea. Only ten days earlier, Putin had [ruled out a strike truce](https://rews.cc/a/putin-rules-out-strike-truce-with-ukraine-and-warns-of-nucle-7e308c) altogether. ![A yellow and cream hourglass shaped like a ballot slips into a cream ballot box against a bright blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/5e3e8d55feddd68b98265f96eb5f0cebeb01385a.webp) ## After the announcement The Kremlin said nothing, [France 24 reported](https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20261011-trump-says-russia-and-ukraine-agree-energy-ceasefire). Russian drones kept flying. Zelensky said on Sunday that Russia had gone on striking Ukraine’s energy system, according to CNN, which reported that he named a power plant in Kyiv and 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,” he wrote. A local official in Kharkiv told ABC News that the city’s CHP-5 thermal power plant [was struck at least twice](https://abc7ny.com/story/russia-strikes-power-plant-ukraine-trump-announces-energy-ceasefire/19930046/) and caught fire. Several outlets mentioned only the Kharkiv plant in their reports. [Euromaidan Press reported](https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/10/11/hours-after-trump-declared-an-energy-ceasefire-russia-hit-kharkiv-power-plant-one-of-200-plus-strikes-on-ukraines-grid-this-week-zelenskyy-says/) Zelensky as saying that this one attack was among more than 200 Russian strikes on Ukraine’s grid that week. None of this was new. Power stations have been among Russia’s main targets since the first months of the full-scale invasion. Ukraine answered later with drones of its own manufacture, sent deep into Russia against oil refineries. Over recent months both sides have escalated the air war. Trump has complained about Ukraine’s strikes on Russian energy sites, yet there were several in the past week, because Kyiv sees the refineries as part of the Kremlin’s war machine. Truces between the two countries have never held for long, and every peace effort Trump has made so far has failed. So on Sunday evening the White House had a post, Kyiv had awaiting-details, and Moscow had silence. In Kharkiv, a power plant was burning. ## Sources - [Trump says Ukraine and Russia agree to 'energy ceasefire'](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/11/trump-says-ukraine-russia-agree-to-energy-ceasefire-2) — aljazeera.com - [Trump declares 'energy ceasefire' between Russia and Ukraine; Zelenskyy is waiting for details](https://cnbc.com/2026/10/11/trump-energy-ceasefire-russia-ukraine-zelenskyy.html) — cnbc.com - [Trump claims Ukraine and Russia have agreed to energy ceasefire](https://cnn.com/2026/10/11/politics/trump-ukraine-russia-energy-ceasefire) — cnn.com