The president made the statement after media reports that the Kremlin is considering an ‘air truce’ to stave off harsher U.S. sanctions.
“We fully support the U.S. proposal for an immediate ceasefire,” Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post.
“We’ve tried various formats to stop the fighting and the killing. We offered Russia a ceasefire in the air—no missile or drone strikes on civilian infrastructure and, specifically, no attacks on energy facilities.”
Zelenskyy stated that Russia has violated every such partial ceasefire proposal “in an extraordinarily cynical manner.”
“Even when they weren’t using kamikaze drones, they were targeting energy equipment and transformers,” he added.
“Not one day have they stopped terrorizing civilians, not one day did they allow a real lull on the front lines. The root cause of the war is solely the Russians’ desire to control, subjugate, and kill their neighbors. If it weren’t for that, there would be now war.”
Earlier the same day, Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that the Kremlin is weighing concessions to U.S. President Donald Trump to avoid additional sanctions. One potential concession could be a mutual ‘air truce’ with Ukraine.
On July 14, Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries purchasing Russian oil if Moscow did not reach a peace deal with Ukraine. Then, on July 29, he said Russian President dictator Putin had 10 days to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.