Putin suggests Ukraine could have UN-led government to organise elections

Vladimir Putin, who has presided over heavily managed national votes, said the idea would be to allow Ukraine to ‘hold democratic elections’. Photograph: Gavriil Grigorov/Reuters

Vladimir Putin has suggested Ukraine could be placed under a temporary UN-led government to organise fresh elections as both Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of breaching an energy ceasefire agreed this week.

The idea was quickly rejected by a US spokesperson, and it was not clear how far it was meant to be taken seriously, given that the Kremlin clarified that Putin had not raised this idea in recent phone calls with Donald Trump.