Kyiv would consider entering peace talks with Russia if the latter refrains from striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure and cargo shipping, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week.
“In other words, we do not attack their energy infrastructures; they don’t attack ours,” he said.
“Could this lead to the end of the war’s hot phase? I think so.”
Moscow, which has laid out its own terms for ending the conflict, has yet to respond to Zelenskyy’s proposal.
Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent months, leading to blackouts and electricity shortfalls in several parts of the country.
Last week, Russian forces targeted energy facilities in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region in an overnight drone and missile attack.
Although no casualties were reported, the attack severely disrupted the region’s power supply, according to local officials.
In early October, Russian drones struck energy facilities in more than a dozen regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv and Odesa, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack damaged power lines and electrical substations, reportedly leaving thousands of households in several regions without electricity.
The Russian Defense Ministry later asserted that the targeted facilities had been used for military purposes by Ukrainian armed forces.
In mid-September, Kyiv’s energy ministry stated that Ukraine had lost upward of 9 gigawatts of generating capacity this year because of repeated Russian strikes.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly late last month, Zelenskyy asserted that all of Ukraine’s thermal power plants—and most of its hydroelectric capacity—had been damaged or destroyed.
“Energy must stop being used as a weapon,” the Ukrainian leader told the assembly.
Moscow says it uses precision weapons to avoid killing civilians and claims that all strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure serve a purely military function.
Along with targeting energy infrastructure, Russia has also ramped up attacks on Ukrainian seaports and cargo vessels in the Black Sea.
In mid-October, a Russian missile attack on the port of Odesa damaged two civilian vessels and a grain storage facility, according to Ukrainian officials.
Kyiv has responded to the Russian barrages by targeting Russian energy infrastructure, especially fuel depots and oil refineries, inside Russia and Russian-held territory.
On Oct. 7, Ukraine’s military claimed to have carried out a successful missile strike on a large Russian fuel depot off the coast of Crimea, which Moscow effectively annexed in 2014.
Moscow never confirmed the strike, but Russian officials did acknowledge a massive fire at the facility, which took several days to extinguish.
The degradation of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure—and a string of recent battlefield losses—have prompted Zelenskyy to redouble his efforts to drum up Western support for what he calls his “victory plan.”
Among other things, the plan calls for Ukraine’s speedy accession to NATO, despite reservations by alliance members Hungary and Slovakia.
Reports have emerged in recent weeks about a possible cease-fire deal in which Ukraine would cede de facto control of Russian-held territory in return for expedited NATO membership.
In his recent remarks to the Financial Times, however, Zelenskyy appeared to dismiss such a scenario.
“Perhaps some partners may have such thoughts,” he said. “They don’t communicate this directly with me, but through the media.
“We are not discussing this.”
