By Yurii Sheliazhenko, World BEYOND War, October 12, 2026

Russian leader Vladimir Putin must consider seriously an offer of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy asking 60 days total ceasefire to organize elections. Zelenskyy said in interview to ABC News on 11 October that this offer was made through Trump’s negotiating team.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on 12 October rejected the 60-days ceasefire offer, explaining in essense that it will not help to exhaust Ukraine and achieve Russian military goals. Instead, he suggested that 24-hours election day ceasefire is possible.

So, the idea of election ceasefire is not absolutely buried yet, but impeded by mistrust and technicalities. Civil society could continue to appeal to leaders that cruel warfare must be stopped, and political disputes must be settled in electoral debates, voting, and at the negotiation table.

Interestingly, an author of this article on behalf of Ukrainian Pacifist Movement on 20 August 2026 submitted open letter calling on President Zelenskyy and former defense minister Fedorov to offer Putin the election ceasefire together. Our organization saw the window of opportunity when, despite legal obstacles and wide consensus among the political class that elections during the war are impossible, a prominent figure close to Zelenskyy, perceived as a reformer (though Fedorov’s links to Musk and Karp are worrying), demanded presidential elections after being pushed out from government despite popular protests.

The offer, of course, would be more timely then because of parliamentary elections in Russia used by ruling party United Russia to promote war effort. A single antiwar party Yabloko was struck out of the ballot under a dubious pretext, but a call to ceasefire from Ukraine at that time could still shift the political discourse from seeking popular support for a longer war to discussing opportunities of peace.

Sadly, the Ukrainian pacifists’ proposal to offer Russia an election ceasefire was not accepted timely. Armed Forces of Ukraine helped Putin’s party to rally population around the battle flag by intensive retaliatory strikes on Russian cities, including Moscow, this summer.

Zelenskyy made this offer only when Trump cornered him with the U.S.-Russia diesel fuel deal and public remarks about the need to change Ukrainian leadership. Of course, the deal fuels rather wars in Iran and Ukraine than U.S. economy, and it is unfair to blame Ukraine for defending from Putin’s assault without mentioning that Russian people might benefit from peaceful, free and fair presidential elections. Such elections would be a better perspective than escalation of war, when the current leadership in Moscow might become even de jure unchangeable (de-facto, it has been unchangeable for more than two decades) similarly to Kyiv last four years because of the looming martial law regime.

Putin’s reply to the offer is obviously not serious: a one-day ceasefire? Come on, imagine how the people will vote at this election day after 60 days of defensive war  propaganda and accompanying attacks proving the point of the propaganda!

Rejecting Zelenskyy’s ceasefire offer, Putin either makes the same mistake Zelenskyy did losing opportunity to discuss a just peace in wide political process and helping his rival to rally people around war flag, or he shows his intention to use war indefinitely as a tool of remaining in power. Leaders behaving like that after years of mass murder, i.e. war, unpleasantly reveal they feel comfortable in power and ready to stay in power at any cost when their people are suffering from killings, pain and destruction, stolen liberties and hopes and joys.

War destroys democracy, but history teaches that direct democracy could end any war. There were several antiwar protests recently in Russia and Ukraine, despite repressions. With the growing pains of war, such protests could grow, and demands of fair peaceful elections might be slogan for the future: cease fire and let the people choose!

People always want peace and will vote for peace at any fair plebiscite. People could vote for war or warmongers, or abandon their power to vote out aspiring military dictators, only when they are misled and intimidated. This, by the way, looks like a usual state of all electorates in the current world, and the reason for this is simple. Current political and legal systems are possessed by systemic violence; the media advertise nonsensical trust in violence, while people in mass are ignorant about power and techniques of nonviolent action. But this is already gradually changing, knowledge and practical experiences of effective pacifism are spreading.

Leaders who bet on staying in power forever by fooling and beating into submission their populations are doomed, like the old-time monarchs who lost power with spreading Enlightenment. The smartest among them, the potential survivors will choose to voluntarily decrease their appetites for power, not to fight against human rights to peace and a happy life, but to help people organize better in the popular pursuit of peace that will grow and take over the world contrary to intimidating ads mobilizing humankind from every screen for a new world war, total and lawless.

Smart leaders will not be an obstacle to peace.

If Zelenskyy is smart, he will stick to the proposal of a 60-day ceasefire to have elections.

If Putin is not a fool, he will accept the proposal.

The post Putin Should Accept Zelenskyy’s Offer of a Ceasefire for Elections in Ukraine appeared first on World BEYOND War.

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