Zelenskyy Says Putin Rejected Black Sea Shipping Truce Offer

By Volodymyr Verbianyi

Aug 23, 2026 (Bloomberg) –Ukraine offered Russia a truce on attacks against ships carrying agricultural commodities through the Black Sea, but Moscow rejected the deal because it wanted guarantees against strikes on its energy infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“It looks like their position is that they will not attack our grain corridor only if we stop attacking their energy sector,” Zelenskyy said Saturday at his office in Kyiv.

Zelenskyy also ruled out holding wartime elections, an idea advocated last week by the popular former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. “If we want to tear the country apart,