Vladimir Putin has suggested Ukraine could be placed under a temporary UN-led government to organise fresh elections as both Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of breaching an energy ceasefire agreed this week.
The idea was quickly rejected by a US spokesperson, and it was not clear how far it was meant to be taken seriously, given that the Kremlin clarified that Putin had not raised this idea in recent phone calls with Donald Trump.
But the remarks indicate that any negotiated end to the war in Ukraine is some way off as Russia continues to add conditions to achieving a settlement while Kyiv has said it would sign up to a 30-day ceasefire if Moscow agreed.
Putin said the idea would be to allow Ukraine to “hold democratic elections, to bring to power a viable government that enjoys the trust of the people, and then begin negotiations with them on a peace treaty” – though he later said that was just “one of the options”.
“Under the auspices of the United Nations, with the United States, even with European countries, and, of course, with our partners and friends, we could discuss the possibility of introduction of temporary governance in Ukraine,” Putin added, in comments broadcast on Friday morning.
A White House national security council spokesperson was dismissive, saying that governance in Ukraine was determined by its constitution. On Thursday at a summit in Paris, European leaders led by France and the UK reiterated their support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine.
Few experts consider the Russian demand that Ukraine holds elections to be realistic, but the Kremlin has tried to highlight Kyiv’s decision not to hold a presidential poll while the war continues as a precondition for achieving a final settlement, as US-brokered peace negotiations proceed slowly.
On Tuesday, the White House announced that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to maritime and energy infrastructure ceasefires – but both sides claimed there were fresh violations on Friday as the land war continued unabated.
In Ukraine, the governor of Poltava region said storage sites for spare parts used by gas supplier Naftogaz were struck by a Russian drone. Russia’s ministry of defence said a gas metering station in the border village of Sudzha in Kursk province had been struck by US-made Himars missiles.
Ukraine’s general staff said the attack in Poltava showed that “the Russian aggressor cynically continues to lie about its aspirations for peace” – while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The Ukrainian armed forces aren’t following orders from the country’s leadership”.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said it was premature to expect fresh higher level talks between the US and Russia to try to achieve a breakthrough. Asked by a reporter as he flew back from a tour of the Caribbean, he said before that, “I think you have to make more progress on a technical level”.
Ukrainian officials also confirmed on Friday that the US had revised a proposed deal for the joint exploitation of minerals and rare earths in the country amid briefings that the new terms were dramatically more favourable to the US.
The new proposal stipulates that a joint investment fund be set up and the US would be given the first option to buy resources extracted until it recoups the aid money it has given Ukraine plus 4% interest. Only after that could Ukraine access the fund’s profits.
A previous proposal, which Zelenskyy had travelled to the US to sign with Trump before he was dragged into a row with the US leader in the Oval Office, had proposed a 50/50 split.
Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister, would not be drawn into a detailed discussion of the suggested terms, telling the country’s parliament that a public debate would harm the country’s position.
But she confirmed a US proposal had been received and Ukraine was formulating its response. “This is a working version that essentially reflects the position of the American legal advisers. We are forming our own position, and the process is currently formalised,” she told legislators.
The pressure group Global Witness said the US demands were extreme. Dominic Kavakeb, a co-director of campaigns, described the reported terms as “the pure, unabashed exploitation of Ukraine as the price to avoid total devastation at the hands of Putin. This is neo-colonialism laid bare.”
Ukraine suspended elections when it introduced martial law after Russia’s full scale invasion in February 2022. Zelenskyy’s five-year term was supposed to end last May, but a vote is not expected to be held until security conditions allow – and there is little public pressure to have one.
Russia, where presidential elections are heavily managed and not considered to be free or fair, has been highlighting the democratic hiatus in Ukraine as a talking point in its favour as initial US-brokered peace talks have begun.
At times a similar position has been adopted by Trump, who last month described Zelenskyy as a “dictator” with a 4% approval rating, although a poll from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology published in early March put the figure at 68%.
