Ukraine has agreed to a US proposal for a temporary pause in attacks on energy infrastructure in the three-year war launched by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X on Wednesday following a phone call with US President Donald Trump.
“One of the first steps toward fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky said in a statement in English after the one-hour conversation.
“I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it,” he added.
It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to the proposal during a call with Trump on Tuesday.
It was initially unclear when the limited ceasefire would begin.
If implemented, it would be the first limitation on the fighting since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
During the call with Zelensky, Trump also proposed that the United States could take ownership of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants as a security guarantee.
Prior to the conversation, Zelensky had called on the US to monitor the pause in attacks.
Mutual strikes
Over the course of the war, Russia has severely damaged Ukraine’s energy supply with targeted missile and drone strikes, leading to the shutdown of several power plants.
While this has imposed severe hardship on the Ukrainian population, facing repeated cuts to electricity, heating and water, the system has so far not collapsed entirely.
For its part, Ukraine has used drones to hit Russian oil refineries aiming reduce the fuel supply for the Russian army.
These attacks, which also aimed to reduce Moscow’s oil revenues, posed a growing problem for the Kremlin.
While a mutual halt to the attacks on energy facilities would be the first tangible result of Trump’s efforts to end the war, Putin has so far not agreed to a US proposal for a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire.
However, US officials are set to meet with representatives from both Ukraine and Russia in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss an extension of the limited ceasefire.
US offers to take ownership of Ukrainian plants
In addition to Trump’s surprise offer to take ownership of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, he and Zelensky also discussed Ukraine’s electricity supply, according to Washington.
“[Trump] said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz said in a joint statement after the phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
“American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” they added.
In comments to the Financial Times newspaper, Zelensky said that only the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant had been discussed.
The government in Kiev currently controls three of its nuclear power plants, while Russia captured the fourth in Zaporizhzhya in 2022 and still occupies it.
Whether Europe’s largest nuclear power plant could play a role in future security arrangements depends on whether Ukraine can regain control and put it back into operation, Zelensky told the British newspaper, adding he had discussed with Washington whether the US could take the plant back from the Russians.
Ukraine’s nuclear power plants have been the backbone of the country’s electricity supply because many coal-fired power plants have been damaged in the war.
The Kiev government has also decided to build more reactors.