Baba UmarUnited Nations, New York — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed his willingness to meet with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to end the Russia-Ukraine war, telling reporters at the UN headquarters that Moscow has yet to show it is prepared to move.
Speaking to reporters after talks with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said the US remains central to bringing Moscow to the table.
“I’m underlining and I underlined it several times today, any kind of negotiation from Russians will give a signal that they are ready to move,” he said. “I’m not sure that they are ready to move. That’s why I think we need the US.”
He said Trump told him he would “do everything” to help end the war and that the most important step Washington could take would be to organise a leaders’ meeting where “all the sensitive things” could be raised directly.
Asked whether he would sit down with Putin in a three-way format, Zelenskyy was blunt: “I’m ready. I’m ready any time when they all decide. I think that we all need to move as quickly as possible.”
Zelenskyy dismissed the idea that historical grievances must be resolved before talks can start.
“If you say that this is ending the war through the dialogue, it means that you have to meet and have a dialogue,” he said. “If you want to end the war, sit, speak.”
When journalists asked whether his openness to a trilateral meeting with Putin meant he agreed with Trump that Putin wants to end the war, Zelenskyy declined to endorse that assessment.
He framed the meeting itself as the test.
“I think that I’m ready for a trilateral meeting. It means that I’m agreeing to end the war, and I want to end the war,” he said.
He compared the moment to earlier US pressure for an unconditional ceasefire at the start of Trump’s term. Ukraine had resisted that formula, he said, because of the scale of Russian killings and the need for accountability.
Accountability “will come,” Zelenskyy said, but refusing a ceasefire or talks was itself a choice to continue the war.
Looming winter
Winter, he argued, cannot wait for diplomacy.
Regardless of whether negotiations advance, Ukraine must prepare for another season of Russian strikes on the power grid.
He said he asked Washington for two things — the first is immediate help with energy and electricity supply.
The second request, he said, is longer-term.
He said it would be licenses and security arrangements that would let Ukraine begin producing Patriot interceptors at home.
He said his military adviser spoke on Tuesday morning with Raytheon and asked Trump to help accelerate the licenses.
“He’s (Trump) positive,” Zelenskyy said of the US president’s response. “God bless, we will start this project.”
Even if Ukraine later fields its own anti-ballistic missile system, he added, domestic Patriot production would still be needed.
Pressed on whether he received a firm US commitment to deliver Patriot interceptors for this winter, Zelenskyy said no one told him no, “and that’s good stuff in my job, but he did not get a concrete answer.
He said he had already signed a production contract with Germany, which has licences and is manufacturing, covering two packages totalling 600 interceptors, 300 plus 300.
He said he told Trump he needed US help now “to save our people now,” and offered to return the missiles in 2027 if Washington later needed them back.
Defence experts say the US has been experiencing a global shortage of Patriot interceptors because many have been expended in war against Iran.
A TRT World question about whether the US war on Iran has complicated Ukraine’s war efforts yielded no response from Zelenskyy.
Pause in energy strikes
On energy targeting, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is not the side that started strikes on energy infrastructure and would not unilaterally stop responding if Russia continues to hit Ukrainian power plants, oil and related facilities.
“I suggest not to play this game,” he said. “He (Putin) attacked us, we respond. If he couldn’t respond, he could already occupy us totally. This is our strong side — that we are not weak.”
Asked how Trump compares with a year earlier, when Zelenskyy called him a “game changer,” the Ukrainian president pointed again to the US leader’s ability to convene talks and push for an end to the fighting before winter.
The Ukrainian president said teams would stay in contact on both the winter energy package and the Patriot licenses.
He did not claim a final deal on either.
