Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York that Ukraine is ready for “any kind of format” of energy ceasefire with Russia as long as Moscow stops attacking Ukraine’s energy system.

He said he does not know Russia’s position and hoped “the American side will find a way” to bring Moscow to any kind of negotiations, according to France 24, which carried the remarks with Agence France-Presse (AFP). Zelensky spoke after a 40-minute meeting with US President Donald Trump, which he described as “positive and productive” and about which he wrote on X that “both the US and Ukraine want to see this senseless Russian war ended before winter”, according to Arab News. In his account to reporters, he said a unilateral halt to Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries was not discussed, and that he is willing to take part in a trilateral meeting with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump had told reporters, before the meeting, that he and Zelensky would discuss Ukrainian attacks on refineries in Russia: “It is a serious hit on the Russians. It’s also a serious hit on the price of diesel,” he said, according to Reuters, in a dispatch carried by The Sacramento Bee. The previous week, the US president had said Russia and Ukraine had agreed not to strike each other’s energy infrastructure; no deal was confirmed and both sides kept up attacks in the following days, as reported by NBC News.