Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that discussions on a temporary halt to attacks on energy infrastructure took place during trilateral meetings between representatives of the United States, Ukraine, and Russia in Abu Dhabi (UAE). He said this during a meeting with journalists.
"Various issues, the most sensitive ones, were discussed at the meeting in Abu Dhabi. The American side also spoke to us separately. I don't know if they spoke to Russia. They probably did. And the Americans said they wanted to raise the issue of de-escalation — for both sides to demonstrate certain steps to not use long-range capabilities in order to provide more space for diplomacy. I said that we will adhere to a mirror attitude towards such steps. In any case, we want to end the war and we are ready for de-escalation steps," explained the president.
He also noted that if Russia does not attack Ukraine, we will not take appropriate steps.
"We don't have a ceasefire. We don't have an official agreement on a ceasefire, like people agree on during some possible negotiations. There was no direct dialogue, no direct agreements on this between us and Russia," the president said.
"If Russia does not strike our energy sector, generating or otherwise, we will not strike their energy sector. I think this is the answer that the mediator of the negotiations, namely the United States of America, was counting on. We always demonstrate that we support all rational American initiatives, we support any real initiatives for de-escalation, etc. If it is a question of a ceasefire, cessation of strikes on energy or other de-escalation steps," he added.
He also reported that dialogue in a trilateral format is also a path to de-escalation, the result of such steps is another matter.
"This is a policy that we chose a little less than a year ago. We support all real de-escalation steps, and we consistently demonstrate this. So that no one can accuse us of slowing down the process of moving towards peace. But then there were negative responses from the Russian Federation, we'll see how it is now," - concluded the head of state.
