kyiv and Washington want Russia’s war against Ukraine to end “before winter”, according to a statement from the Ukrainian president published Tuesday September 22 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
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“Both the United States and Ukraine want to see this absurd war led by Russia end before winter,” writes Volodymyr Zelensky, who specifies that he has discussed with President Donald Trump “de-escalation measures likely to open the way to diplomacy.”
“I am grateful that in the meantime our teams continue to work on launching production of Patriot interceptor missiles in Ukraine,” he also added.
The Ukrainian president has been warning for weeks about his vital need for Patriot missiles and missile systems, manufactured in the United States, and the only ones capable of countering these machines which fly at high speed on very inclined trajectories.
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“This is what will help protect lives if Russia refuses negotiations and continues to bet on ballistic missile terror against our people this winter and beyond,” Volodymyr Zelensky underlined.
An “energy moratorium” mentioned
During a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the Ukrainian leader further indicated that he had informed the American president of his intention to cease strikes on Russian energy sites on the condition that Moscow does the same with its massive strikes in Ukraine.
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With the American president, “we talked about an energy moratorium,” the Ukrainian president said on Tuesday.
“We do not want to go into details (but) but we are ready for a moratorium (…) provided that they (the Russians) do not attack our energy infrastructure, heating, electricity or our water reserves,” he added, stressing that he was not sure that the Russians were ready on their side.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “very grateful” to the United States for trying to find “a way to bring them to some form of negotiations, whatever it may be.”
He also asked Donald Trump to pass messages to Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he will welcome to Washington tomorrow.
“I told the president (Trump) very openly that we believe that if he also engages President Xi, he has influence over Putin,” Volodymyr Zelensky underlined.
For several weeks, the international community has been pressing Moscow and kyiv to stop their reciprocal strikes on energy infrastructure in order to contain the consequences of the war on energy costs.
With AFP
