Ukraine is ready to halt strikes on energy infrastructure if Russia agrees to abide by a US proposal for a weeklong truce, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
“If Russia does not strike our energy infrastructure – generation facilities or any other energy assets – we will not strike theirs,” Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv late Thursday. “We want to end the war and we are ready for de-escalation steps.”
US President Donald Trump said earlier at the White House that he’d asked Russian leader Vladimir Putin “not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that.” So far, the Kremlin hasn’t confirmed an agreement to halt missile and drone attacks that have devastated energy infrastructure in Ukraine, causing power and heating outages during an extreme winter cold snap.
Temperatures are forecast to drop below minus 20C (minus 4F) at night, adding to wartime hardships for the weary population with many buildings in Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine plunged into cold and darkness during protracted blackouts.
With the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine shifting only gradually as the war nears its fourth full year, Russia has sought to break morale among Ukrainians by stepping up attacks on civilian infrastructure. Ukraine has responded by waging a campaign to strike Russia’s oil refineries and other infrastructure, aiming to undermine its ability to fund the war with income from energy sales.
Trump’s proposal for an energy truce to allow greater space for negotiations aimed at ending the war is “an opportunity rather than an agreement,” Zelenskiy said. “Whether it will work or not, and what exactly will work, I cannot say at this point.”
Russia continued its attacks on Ukraine overnight, launching one ballistic missile and 111 combat drones, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Telegram. Still, the scale was far smaller than in some of Russia’s most intense recent assaults.
Zelenskiy criticized Ukraine’s European allies for delays in supplying missiles for air-defense systems, which he said had exacerbated the country’s energy difficulties under the Russian onslaught.
“Imagine this: I know that ballistic missiles are incoming against our energy infrastructure; I know that Patriot systems are deployed; and I know that there will be no electricity, because there are no missiles to intercept them,” he said.
Ukraine and Russia are continuing peace talks brokered by the US after meeting in the United Arab Emirates for two days last week. Zelenskiy said it was unclear now whether a second meeting in Abu Dhabi scheduled for Sunday would go ahead.
The key sticking point of Russia’s territorial demands from Ukraine remains unresolved, he said. Russia is demanding a Ukrainian withdrawal from areas of the eastern Donetsk region that Putin’s forces have failed to occupy in fighting dating back to 2014.
The US has proposed establishing a so-called “free economic zone” in Donetsk region, which would imply a Ukrainian troop withdrawal. Kyiv has rejected that idea and proposed instead that Russia and Ukraine halt the fighting along the existing frontlines.
“In my view, the least problematic possible solution is ‘we stay where we are.’ That is our position,” Zelenskiy said. “The issue of control over any territory – including a free economic zone – must also be fair. Specifically, it must involve Ukraine maintaining control over the territories that we currently control.”
The issue was discussed in Abu Dhabi, and it was agreed that the sides would resume negotiations at the next meeting “and that we would receive feedback from the Russian Federation,” he said.
Zelenskiy reiterated that he’s ready to meet with Putin and Trump for peace talks in any country except for Russia and its ally Belarus. He dismissed an offer this week from Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov to come to Moscow for talks with Putin.
“I can just as well invite him to Kyiv, let him come,” Zelenskiy said. “I am publicly inviting him, if he dares, of course.”
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