Trump stated that Zelenskyy is prepared to scale back strikes on oil refineries in Russia, "because this is creating global problem"
US President Donald Trump has stated that he urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to exercise greater caution regarding strikes on Russian oil refineries, as this, in his view, creates a global problem.
He told journalists this, according to Censor.NET.
What do we know?
"The big problem is that oil refineries in Russia are being blown up. This is not so much a Middle Eastern problem as a Russian problem, because Ukraine and Russia are at odds with one another, and Ukraine is blowing up diesel refineries in Russia because they handle a significant volume of processing," he noted.
According to Trump, he spoke to Zelenskyy and told him:
"And I spoke to President Zelenskyy and told him: ‘You gotta take it easy on the refineries."
"He said: ‘Well, perhaps we’ll do just that.’ Because this creates a global problem, and there are other things they can do," the US leader added.
What led up to this?
- On 21 September, US President Donald Trump stated that Russia had lost control of its own oil refining capacity due to the war against Ukraine.
- On 14 September, Trump claimed that Ukraine and Russia had allegedly reached an agreement to mutually cease strikes on energy facilities.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy subsequently replied to Trump, saying that Ukraine was prepared to refrain from striking Russian energy infrastructure if its partners guaranteed that Russia would not strike Ukrainian infrastructure.
- The Russian dictator’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, described a possible energy truce between Ukraine and Russia as a "good idea".
- Media reports suggested that Trump plans to put pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a face-to-face meeting in New York on 22 September. He wants Kyiv to agree to an energy truce with Russia.
- US Vice-President J.D. Vance expressed cautious optimism about progress, although he described Russia’s war against Ukraine as "the most difficult of international conflicts" to resolve.
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, has publicly called for a separate "energy truce" between the parties.
- In an interview with CBC News, Zelenskyy stated his readiness to meet with Putin in the interests of bringing about peace, and also outlined a condition for de-escalation: Ukraine would cease strikes on Russian oil refineries only in response to a similar move by Moscow.
- Zelenskyy stated that Trump had not asked Ukraine to unilaterally cease strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure
