War in Ukraine: Kiev officially proposes an energy truce to Moscow for Easter, announces Volodymyr

Russia stated this week that they had not seen a “clearly formulated initiative” from Kiev regarding a pause in strikes targeting energy infrastructure during the Easter holidays.

Ukraine has conveyed to Russia, through American mediators, a proposal for a ceasefire on strikes targeting the energy infrastructure of both countries, its President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Monday, April 6. “If Russia is willing to stop hitting our energy sector, we are ready to do the same. And this proposal from us – transmitted by the Americans – has been communicated to the Russian side,” he stated in his evening address.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia had not seen a “clearly formulated initiative” from Kiev on an Easter ceasefire in Ukraine. However, he rejected the idea of a ceasefire, stating that the Ukrainian leader must “make the appropriate decisions so that we achieve peace, not a truce.”

On Monday, Moscow accused Ukraine of damaging four reservoirs and an oil pipeline at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal in Novorossiysk, a Russian port on the Black Sea. Kiev claimed responsibility for an attack on the port but not on the CPC. In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense accused Kiev of seeking to “destabilize the global hydrocarbons market and halt deliveries of petroleum products to European consumers.” While not mentioning the CPC, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) stated on Monday that they, together with military units, had targeted the oil terminal of Cheskharis, also located in the port of Novorossiysk.

This terminal exports oil, mainly from Kazakhstan, through the pipeline operated by the CPC, one of the largest in the world, running from oil fields in Kazakhstan through Russia to the Black Sea. Among the shareholders of the CPC are American oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil.