KYIV, Sept 14 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Kyiv was ready to support a U.S. proposal for a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire on energy sites only if Washington could ensure Moscow was genuinely ready to end its war on Ukraine.
Zelenskiy made his comments in his nightly video address after U.S. President Donald Trump said that Ukraine and Russia had both agreed not to hit each other’s energy targets.
“If this can become the first de-escalatory step, a step towards ending Russian strikes against our critical infrastructure and our strikes in response, Ukraine is ready to support de-escalation,” Zelenskiy said.
“So far, no one has seen any genuine willingness on Russia’s part to bring the war to an end. But if our American partners can secure Russia’s genuine readiness to end the war aimed at destroying lives, and to do so honestly and on a long-term basis, Ukraine will take its own de-escalatory steps.”
In its 4-1/2-year-long war, Russia has often struck Ukrainian energy sites, a campaign that has caused major damage to heating and power networks and severely disrupted both industry and the daily lives of civilians.
Ukraine’s military has for months launched its own attacks on Russian industrial sites, particularly Russia’s oil industry, a mainstay of the national economy. Those attacks caused serious shortages of petrol in many Russian regions.
Zelenskiy posted comments earlier on social media that amounted to a denial that Ukraine had formally endorsed Trump’s statement that both sides had agreed to halt attacks.
The Ukrainian president said Ukraine was not convinced that Russia was willing to abide by any agreement.
Any accord had to be “reliable, long-term, and actually have a real impact on people’s lives”, he said.
In his statement, Trump said the two sides had agreed not to hit each other’s energy targets.
“Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!” he wrote on social media.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash, Editing by Timothy Heritage, Ron Popeski, Ros Russell and Cynthia Osterman)
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