Zelenskyy: Ukraine ready to support de-escalation with Russia if it is genuine US proposal
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was ready to support de-escalation through a mutual halt to strikes on critical infrastructure if the United States ensured that Russia was genuinely prepared to end the war.
He said this in an address on September 14, Censor.NET reports.
Possible de-escalation step
According to the president, if this could become the first step towards de-escalation — an end to Russian strikes on Ukrainian critical infrastructure and to Ukrainian retaliatory strikes — then Ukraine was ready to support de-escalation.
Zelenskyy noted that the Russians were feeling pressure from Ukraine’s precise retaliatory strikes against Russia’s war economy, but no one had yet seen any genuine desire on Russia’s part to end the war.
Conditions for peace
At the same time, if Ukraine’s US partners succeeded in ensuring that Russia was genuinely and durably prepared to end the war, Ukraine would take its own de-escalation steps.
"Peace is needed. Energy infrastructure, food supply routes and critical infrastructure — all of this must be included in discussions on ending the strikes. A strong and just solution is needed, not merely for the ‘elections,’ but for the long term. We expect specifics from our partners," Zelenskyy concluded.
Background
- On September 14, US President Donald Trump claimed that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to mutually halt strikes on energy facilities.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later responded to Trump, saying that Ukraine was ready to refrain from striking Russian energy infrastructure if its partners guaranteed that Russia would not strike Ukrainian facilities.
- The previous day, Trump said that Ukraine should halt its strikes on Russian energy infrastructure because they were allegedly causing diesel fuel shortages.
