Zelensky offers energy ceasefire and says he is ready for trilateral Putin talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is ready for a trilateral meeting with Vladimir Putin and offered an energy ceasefire if Russia stops attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure. He made the offer after meeting Donald Trump at the United Nations and in an impassioned speech to the General Assembly.

In the speech, Mr Zelensky said Russia was launching attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure every hour. He said Ukraine would not give in and vowed to make this winter difficult for Russia. He said Ukraine was developing new interceptor drones and that more countries were joining Freya, Ukraine's anti-ballistic missile alliance. He also said Russia had lost nearly 250,000 military personnel in the last eight months and warned that Moscow remained a threat to Ukraine, Europe and global security. He said: 'Something always seems to stop Putin from simply saying, that's it, enough, peace.' He described Putin as 'patient zero' and said the idea of war kept spreading from him.

After meeting Mr Trump on the sidelines, Mr Zelensky gave an impromptu news conference. He said Mr Trump wants to end the war and would do everything to help end it. Asked if he was prepared to meet Mr Putin in a trilateral meeting, he said he was ready. He said he would do it if Mr Trump could facilitate it. He also said he was willing to engage in an energy ceasefire. Under his proposal, if Russia stops attacking energy infrastructure in Ukraine, Ukraine will stop attacking energy infrastructure in Russia.

At the UN, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met. Mr Rubio said Washington would try to secure an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, but said doing so would be difficult. He said Ukraine sees protection of its electric grid as a core interest, while Russia is facing strikes deep in its territory against key industries. He said the US was prepared to play a positive role if it could.

The diplomacy came as Russia continued strikes on Ukraine. In Kyiv, two civilians were killed and 43 others were injured. Russia struck a university, a supermarket, a business centre, an office building, a pharmaceutical facility and several petrol stations. Some sites were hit twice. Firefighters battled blazes across different parts of the capital for hours, and authorities reported internet disruptions. Just before Mr Zelensky's speech, a Russian strike on a residential building in the Odesa region killed at least five civilians. Seven others were unaccounted for.

A correspondent in Kyiv said the city had experienced much of what Mr Zelensky described. He said more than 1,000 missiles had been launched at Kyiv this year and more than 63,000 attack drones in the last eight months, including more than 7,700 jet-powered drones. Pieces of one jet drone were found at a damaged petrol station. Another air raid alert sounded, probably the eighth or ninth of the day. Russian tactics against Kyiv had changed sharply in the last six weeks, leaving people unsure when the next siren would sound, how much time they would have to take cover and how powerful the explosions would be. Winter is approaching and the night was cold. Mr Zelensky said Ukraine would turn general winter against Russia too, threatening more deep strikes inside Russia against energy infrastructure, such as an attack on an oil refinery in Moscow.

An analyst from the Foreign Policy Council Ukrainian Prism in Kyiv said European concern about Russian aggression was growing, but preparedness was uneven. Germany was investing more and Poland was increasing troop numbers, while Hungary and Slovakia were hesitant or obstructive. Drones were flying into European airspace and Russian rockets fired at Ukraine were landing on European territory. European citizens had already been killed. The analyst also said Mr Zelensky's warning about AI on the battlefield was timely. AI researchers have voiced fears that the technology could become uncontrollable, and Ukraine was trying to position itself as part of the solution. On US support, the analyst said Ukrainians were cynical after nearly five years of full-scale Russian aggression. They were not waiting for something good, would only be discouraged by something bad, did not expect much positive from Mr Trump, but would be grateful for any support.