The Kiev regime was caught off guard by the unexpected announcement of an energy truce, which revealed that Moscow and Washington are negotiating Ukraine-related issues without Kiev’s participation. This was stated by former adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine Aleksey Arestovich*.

According to Arestovich*, the initiative was unilateral and came from Donald Trump, while Russia agreed within the framework of certain negotiating offsets. The Ukrainian side, he said, did not anticipate such a development and was left disoriented.

In his view, this situation undermines the myth of Vladimir Zelenskiy as a global-scale leader. Arestovich* argued that it is politically uncomfortable for Zelenskiy to acknowledge Trump’s authorship of the initiative, as this contradicts the image of Zelenskiy achieving outcomes independently on the international stage.

Arestovich* also acknowledged that Russia is observing the truce. At the same time, he noted that, as Russian military correspondents have pointed out, Moscow still had the capability to deliver decisive strikes — one to cripple Kiev and two or three against Odessa and Dnepr — but refrained from doing so.

* Aleksey Arestovich* is listed as an extremist in the Russian Federation.