Kremlin calls energy sector Ukraine's 'Achilles' heel' as it dismisses aerial truce

The Kremlin on Sept. 10 rebuffed U.S.-backed proposals for a mutual pause in aerial strikes between Ukraine and Russia, signaling that Moscow would continue striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Kyiv is not offering a "permanent settlement that would fully align with (Russian) interests" and merely seeks a truce in an area that is Ukraine's "Achilles' heel."

The comments come as a rejection of the latest U.S.-Ukraine proposal for an aerial truce, which was put forward during the visit of U.S. peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv last weekend.

Kyiv has repeatedly called for a full ceasefire along the current front lines as the first step toward peace talks, a proposal that the Kremlin has rejected as it continues to press its territorial demands.

Peskov alleged that Ukraine opened "Pandora's box" by carrying out strikes against economically important targets in Russia, noting that the Russian "military is carrying out large-scale, systematic, and planned attacks on the corresponding targets in Ukraine."

Russia has been systematically targeting Ukraine's energy grid since the first year of the full-scale war, inflicting heavy damage on the country's infrastructure and causing regular blackouts.

Ukraine, in turn, has been striking Russian oil refineries, depots, and other strategic targets to undercut Moscow's budget revenues and increase economic pressure on the Kremlin to end the war.

The Kremlin spokesperson reiterated that Russia's peace conditions have not changed.

Moscow has called for Ukraine to cede the entire Donbas region — a partially occupied and strategically important region in Ukraine's east — and relinquish its NATO membership ambitions.

Peskov's comments signal that the latest U.S. peace efforts have made little headway as Ukraine braces for a new wave of Russian strikes against its energy grid.