Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he discussed with US President Donald Trump efforts to end the 4-year-old war with Russia, including a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets.
Speaking to the media after a 40-minute meeting with Trump at UN headquarters in New York, Zelenskiy said Kyiv was ready for any format of an energy ceasefire with Moscow, but there had been no discussion of Ukraine unilaterally halting its attacks on Russian oil refineries.
Trump, whose approval ratings have slumped to a record low amid high gas prices ahead of the US midterm elections in November, had expressed concern in recent days over the extensive damage done to Russia's fuel-processing capacity, which he said was stoking diesel prices globally.
Zelenskiy reiterated that he was ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at a trilateral meeting with Trump, adding that he hoped the US would find a way to bring Moscow back to the negotiating table after talks unraveled earlier this year.
Zelenskiy, however, said he had seen no indication that Putin was ready to talk.
"I'm ready for a trilateral meeting. It means that I'm agreed to end the war," Zelenskiy said.
Before their meeting, Trump told reporters that he and Zelenskiy would discuss Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries.
"It is a serious hit on the Russians. It's also a serious hit on the price of diesel," said Trump.
He said he and Zelenskiy would also talk about solutions for ending the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
"I think it's going to happen," Trump said.
The US leader announced last week that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to strike energy targets, but any semblance of a truce disappeared when Russia hit petrol stations in Kyiv the following day and Ukraine bombed a Russian oil refinery.
Zelenskiy also met with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who said he lobbied Trump to press for a Ukraine-Russia energy ceasefire in his meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart. Burnham also promised further financial support to Kyiv for infrastructure.
AERIAL ATTACKS
Intensifying aerial attacks by both sides in the Ukraine war in recent weeks have battered ports, warehouses, ships and energy infrastructure, as well as crippling Black Sea grain exports.
Amid fears in Ukraine that Russia will once again pound its heating and power facilities as winter approaches, Zelenskiy said he had discussed preparations with Trump and asked the US for a package of Patriot air defense missiles — the only weapon in Ukraine's arsenal capable of downing Russia's ballistic missiles.
The US war in Iran and the Ukraine war have depleted global supplies of Patriots, including US inventories.
Zelenskiy said that, in return for Patriots from US stockpiles this winter, Ukraine would swap future supplies of interceptors from its deal with Germany, which has agreed to provide Ukraine with 600 Patriots in 2027 and 2028.
He told reporters it was a "good step" that the idea was not rejected but acknowledged that Trump had not yet agreed to the proposal.
Zelenskiy said that discussions for Ukraine to begin licensed production of Patriots itself were still ongoing, and a member of his team had held a positive meeting with Raytheon, a US producer of Patriots.
