Zelenskyy to address UN, Rubio to meet Russian counterpart — but few breakthroughs expected
Russia pounded Kyiv with drone strikes on Wednesday, hitting railway infrastructure, warehouses and fuel stations, just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Kremlin rejects idea of summit with Trump, Putin, Zelenskyy
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Russia pounded Kyiv with drone strikes on Wednesday, hitting railway infrastructure, warehouses and fuel stations, just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
At least two people were killed and 22 were injured in the morning attack, according to city authorities, in one of the heaviest strikes since Russia began attacking Kyiv and nearby areas over the summer with faster and high-flying jet drones that are harder to intercept.
Zelenskyy met with U.S. President Donald Trump Tuesday on the UN sidelines, where they discussed a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets and asked for increased supplies of U.S. Patriot air defence missiles to defend against an expected Russian winter campaign against Ukraine's electricity infrastructure. No agreements were reached, he said.
Trump said last week that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to strike energy targets, but any semblance of a truce disappeared when petrol stations in Kyiv were struck the following day and Ukraine bombed a Russian oil refinery.
For his part, Zelenskyy has said he was ready for "any format" of an energy ceasefire with Moscow, as long as Russia halted its own attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure — something he doubts the Kremlin will honour.
Trump urges pause on energy attacks after Ukraine, Russia trade strikes
11 hours ago|
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2:22
U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volydymyr Zelenskyy discussed a possible pause on striking Russian energy sites over fears of spiralling diesel prices. Ukraine and Russia traded more strikes on each other's energy infrastructure overnight Tuesday.The Kremlin cautioned on Wednesday ahead of a planned meeting in New York between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that there were still no grounds for Ukraine peace talks to take place.
"For now, there are no prerequisites for moving onto a peaceful negotiating track, although we, as the Russian side, remain open to peace talks," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin stood ready to meet Trump one-on-one if both leaders deemed such a meeting necessary. But he made it clear that Russia's stance on the possibility of Putin and Zelenskyy meeting in person had not changed.
The Kremlin has said that Zelenskyy would need to come to Moscow for such a meeting having already taken decisions Russia has been pushing for — an idea that Kyiv has repeatedly dismissed as unacceptable, suggesting any talks could only be held in a neutral country.
Peskov also played down the idea of a trilateral summit with the three presidents.
"Generally speaking, in any other circumstances, it would be inappropriate to hold a summit meeting before the groundwork has been laid at expert level, as this would be a waste of time," he said.
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U.S. ponders diesel export ban
France's President Emmanuel Macron said Monday he had discussed with Trump initiatives aimed at securing a moratorium on attacks linked to the energy sector.
The French leader said helping Ukraine's energy system remained a priority as the war continued to affect security across Europe and he hoped progress could be made during the annual gathering of leaders at the United Nations.
While Trump has blamed the attacks for soaring diesel prices in the U.S., most economic experts believe the U.S.-initiated Iran war has been a bigger factor.
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Trump said Tuesday he backed the idea of a diesel export ban supported by some Republican legislators in agricultural states. But it's not unanimously supported by all Republican members of Congress and it puts the president at odds with his own energy officials, who warn it could raise fuel prices on the coasts and tighten supplies for European allies.
"If you start putting barriers on flows, pretty quickly you will reduce the production, and you'll have less supply. We need more supply, not less supply," U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.
Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, said that a ban would be unlikely to lower petroleum prices and could lead to retaliatory measures by energy exporting countries, which states like California rely on for some of their energy.
In a Tuesday interview with Fox News, Rubio suggested there was another reason for the U.S. concern about the strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.
"The one thing we are concerned about, however, is that over the last few months, on a number of occasions, American-linked ships, American oil supplies have been targeted, probably not deliberately, but targeted nonetheless by Ukraine," said Rubio, not specifying which U.S. companies he was referring to.
In Russia, the Economy Ministry expects the country to produce and export less natural gas this year than previously forecast, according to a draft government document seen by Reuters. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Russia had also downgraded its 2026 oil output forecast to a 17-year low and revised the fuel export outlook for this year and next due to the war with Ukraine.
Natural gas production and export forecasts have been revised down against the background of ruptured economic and political ties with the West over the Ukraine war and the European Union's plans to stop all purchases of Russian gas from next year. Russia's gas exports to Europe tumbled 44 per cent last year to the lowest amount since the mid-1970s, according to Reuters calculations, following the closure of the Ukrainian transit route.
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