Zelenskyy Offers to Pause Strikes if Russia Spares Grid — SkimNews
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- Zelenskyy said Ukraine will halt attacks on Russian territory if the US secures a Russian commitment to stop targeting Ukrainian infrastructure, conditioning any de-escalation on Washington verifying that Moscow is "genuinely ready to stop this war...for the long term."
- Trump claimed on Monday that Ukraine and Russia had already decided to stop targeting each other's energy sites, offering no details — a statement issued the day after he blamed rising diesel prices on the "Russia/Ukraine war" and "not Iran."
- Russia's repeated strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure over three winters have left thousands of households without electricity or heating, and Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately targeting food, energy, and other "facilities that sustain life."
- Russian strikes on Kyiv on Tuesday killed one person and wounded seven, with two more killed in separate attacks on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service.
- Russia's Defence Ministry said it shot down 222 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Ukrainian media reported a drone strike damaged an oil refinery in Russia's southeastern Samara region, with about 40 drones intercepted according to regional Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev.
- Ukraine launched a "massive" drone attack on the Russian city of Taganrog that regional Governor Yury Slyusar said damaged apartment buildings, private homes, an educational institution, agricultural warehouses, and an Ozon e-retailer site — Zelenskyy said the target was a drone production facility.
Why it matters: Trump's unilateral claim of a Ukraine-Russia energy-strike moratorium was immediately walked back by Zelenskyy's conditional counter-offer, exposing a gap between White House rhetoric and Kyiv's actual demands. With Russian strikes killing three Ukrainians on Tuesday and both sides exchanging hundreds of drones overnight, no operational pause is in effect — meaning Washington must now broker verifiable commitments before either side de-escalates ahead of winter.
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