Kyiv:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that a halt on energy strikes in the war with Russia could be established quickly, and that Ukraine would respond in kind if Moscow violated the terms of the ceasefire.
After speaking to U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday for the first time since disastrous Oval Office talks last month, Zelenskiy said Kyiv would draw up a list of facilities that could be subject to a partial ceasefire brokered by Washington.
That list, he said, could include not only energy infrastructure but also rail and port facilities.
“But I understand that until we agree (with Russia), until there is a corresponding document on even a partial ceasefire, I think that everything will fly,” Zelenskiy told reporters at an online briefing, meaning drones and missiles.
The Ukrainian leader described his phone call with Trump as “probably his most substantive and positive” talks yet, adding that he had not felt under pressure.
Zelenskiy met Trump for talks on February 28 to discuss a minerals deal and the path to ending the war in Ukraine, but the meeting rapidly spiralled into acrimony in front of the world’s media.
Asked on Wednesday if he still wanted Trump to visit Ukraine, Zelenskiy said he did and that he believed it would be helpful for the U.S. president in his efforts to halt the war.
Zelenskiy said he and Trump discussed the vast Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine during the phone call.
He added that he told Trump that Kyiv would be ready to discuss U.S. involvement in modernising and investing in the nuclear plant if it is returned to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy also said that Ukraine had received new supplies of several F-16 fighter jets, but he declined to say exactly how many or when exactly the delivery had happened.
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