Ukraine ready for 'de-escalatory steps' if Russia eases conflict: Zelensky

KYIV: Ukraine is prepared to take “de-escalatory steps” as long as Russia does the same, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday, as the United States pushed for an end to strikes on energy targets.

Zelensky, in his daily address, highlighted “a strong proposal from the United States regarding a mutual halt to strikes on critical infrastructure”.

He said: “If this can become the first de-escalatory step – stopping Russian strikes on our critical infrastructure, and ours in response – then Ukraine is ready to support de-escalation.”

US President Donald Trump said earlier Monday that Kyiv and Moscow had agreed to not hit energy targets.

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Trump has said the Russian-Ukrainian war, “not Iran”, was causing an eye-watering rise in fuel costs for Americans, and he said he had told Zelensky not to allow attacks on Russia’s diesel refineries.

Zelensky, though, said that “we see that the Russians are feeling pressure because of our precise responses against Russia’s war economy”.

And, he noted, “so far no one has seen any genuine desire from Russia to move toward ending the war”.

“But if our American partners succeed in securing a real readiness from Russia to stop this war of destroying lives, and to do so sincerely and for the long term, Ukraine will make its own de-escalatory steps.”

A previous push by Trump for a ceasefire in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has been sidelined by the US-Israeli war against Iran, now in its seventh month.