Putin called mutual cessation of strikes with Ukraine meaningless

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the proposal for a mutual cessation of strikes between Russia and Ukraine "meaningless," effectively rejecting one of the discussed de-escalation options.

Putin said this on October 1 during a speech at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, TASS reports.

The Russian president spoke about the possibility of mutual refusal of deep strikes and other options for partial cessation of attacks. According to him, he considers such a format of agreements meaningless.

At the same time, Putin himself previously confirmed that Moscow had received proposals to stop deep strikes from both sides. In June, he stated that one of the settlement options was precisely the mutual limitation of long-range attacks, but Russia also did not agree to such a scheme at that time.

The topic became relevant again in September after the emergence of an American initiative on mutual cessation of strikes on critical infrastructure. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on September 14 that Kyiv is ready to support such a step if Russia also stops attacks.

"If this can be the first step toward de-escalation—the cessation of Russian strikes on our critical infrastructure and our retaliatory strikes—then Ukraine is ready to support de-escalation," — Zelensky said.

Later, Zelensky clarified that the proposal came from the United States. It included mutual cessation of strikes on energy infrastructure. Ukraine stated its readiness to accept such an option, while Moscow's final consent had not been received.

At the end of September, Putin also claimed that Ukraine is seeking several partial agreements—including the cessation of strikes on energy and a mutual halt to air attacks. The Russian president linked these proposals to the consequences of Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Thus, the current statement at Valdai shows that Moscow does not currently support the proposed format of mutual cessation of long-range strikes, despite Ukraine's readiness to discuss it as a first step toward broader de-escalation.

Based on materials: TASS, President of Ukraine, Axios