Today, asked to confirm whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump about a one-week ‘energy truce'—that is, not striking Ukrainian energy facilities—Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov only stated: “No, I cannot comment on this at this time.” Trump alluded to a phone conversation with Putin, however neither side has officially reported that one took place.
Peskov did say that they were waiting on the White House to respond to Putin’s offer to extend the New START treaty’s limitations on nuclear bombs, in light of the fact that the treaty will otherwise expire on Feb. 6, 2026. Trump had made an offhand comment recently that letting the treaty expire wasn’t such a big deal, and that a new and better one could be put in its place. Peskov warned today that negotiating a replacement “takes a lot of time and is complicated.” Letting the treaty lapse, he said, would create a “serious deficit” in the legal framework governing nuclear arms, undermine global stability, and serve neither Russian nor US interests. He said Moscow’s stance on the issue was “consistent... We continue to wait, but the deadline is close. There has been no response from the United States.”
Peskov also said that Putin had agreed to meet with Ukraine’s head Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but he underlined that the offer is to host Zelenskyy in Moscow: “We’re still talking about Moscow. He added: “Speculative discussions are inappropriate here.” Zelenskyy had said recently that the matters of territory and of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant could only be settled by his meeting with Putin
