The proposals are a mutual halt to strikes on energy infrastructure, the reopening of the Black Sea grain corridor and a trilateral meeting of US, Russian and Ukrainian representatives, the Ukrainian president said.
Zelensky said the offer of a reciprocal pause in attacks on energy facilities came from the United States and that Ukraine is ready to accept it. "Right now there is a proposal on the table — an energy truce. We are ready," Axios quoted Zelensky as saying.
Abu Dhabi has been named as a possible venue for the three-way meeting. Zelensky also said he told Trump that the December G20 summit in Miami could serve as another platform for a leaders-level meeting. "We are open — any country, any format," the Ukrainian president said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Trump had invited Putin to take part in the G20 summit in Miami. Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, later said the Kremlin was grateful for the invitation and that the proposal would be worked through.
ZN.UA reported, citing sources, that a trilateral meeting is being prepared in New York involving the head of Zelensky's office, Kyrylo Budanov, and the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Rustem Umerov, as well as Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and Kirill Dmitriev. Zelensky's adviser Dmytro Lytvyn denies the information. A representative of Dmitriev called the report a fake.
Zelensky stressed in the Axios interview that he continues to doubt Putin's intentions and believes Putin could find reasons to avoid a trilateral meeting. Rubio said there is no agreement yet on an energy truce between Russia and Ukraine, but that such an arrangement would be "completely logical."
Military expert Sergei Auslender, in a comment to Radio Liberty, assessed an energy truce as unlikely in the near future. In his view, with the front line not moving, it is one of Russia's ways of pressuring Ukraine. Auslender believes there should first be a comprehensive ceasefire, and only after that — negotiations.
America-watcher and political analyst Anton Penkovsky believes the West is not giving Ukraine a sufficient advantage in the war. In his assessment, NATO, the EU and the US have enough weapons and personnel to shift the front line and force Putin into a ceasefire through concrete actions rather than rhetoric.