Russia is losing but has no intention of ending war against Ukraine – Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia is not winning on the battlefield but is showing no readiness to end the war, and that Ukraine is responding to attacks on its energy infrastructure with strikes on Russia’s.
The head of state said this at a press conference in The Hague with Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, Censor.NET reports.
Russia is not winning on the front line
Asked why he had come to the Netherlands, Zelenskyy said that the American side is constantly trying to find a balance and a compromise on ending the war. At the same time, he said, Ukraine stresses that Russia is not winning.
The president noted that the main problem is Russia’s unwillingness to end the war. That is precisely why, he said, Ukraine needs to maintain unity with its partners.
Energy truce never took effect
Zelenskyy also said that the energy truce proposed by US President Donald Trump never took effect.
According to him, Trump publicly proposed halting strikes on energy infrastructure. Ukraine supported the initiative, but Russia did not agree. Russian forces subsequently continued attacking Ukrainian energy facilities.
Ukraine is now responding to Russian strikes on its energy infrastructure with attacks on Russian energy facilities, the president added.
Ukraine and Russia’s "energy truce"
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On October 11, Trump announced the purported start of an "energy truce" and claimed that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to halt strikes. Zelenskyy called this "news" and stressed that Kyiv was ready to take such a step if Moscow genuinely complied.
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The Financial Times, citing European officials, reported that the Trump administration was demanding that Kyiv stop attacks on Russian oil refineries, threatening to halt arms purchases and intelligence sharing.
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Russia subsequently continued its attacks on Ukraine, including its energy infrastructure. The United States, for its part, did not warn Kyiv about ballistic missile launches and likely restricted the operation of Starlink terminals, complicating operations on the front line.
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On the morning of October 15, Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine would resume strikes on Russian oil refineries. According to him, this followed three days without attacks amid US restrictions on Starlink and, possibly, intelligence sharing.
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Earlier, on October 9, Trump announced that he had held an "extremely successful conversation" with Putin and agreed on supplies of thousands of tonnes of Russian diesel fuel to the United States and global markets
