 "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a joint press conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb (not pictured) at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, on Wednesday. Reuters File")
A day after a call between US President Donald Trump and and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin failed to agree on a full ceasefire in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would speak to President Trump later on Wednesday and urge US to oversee Ukraine-Russia energy ceasefire.
According to a Politico report, Zelenskyy made this announcement at a press conference alongside Finnish President Alexander Stubb in Helsinki and said that Putin’s “words are at odds with reality.”
“I will be contacting President Trump today, we will be discussing the details of his call with Moscow," Politico quoted Zelenskyy as saying.
Zelenskyy said that the US should monitor a partial Russian-Ukrainian ceasefire on energy infrastructure after Moscow agreed to temporarily pause attacks on Ukrainian energy sites.
“The United States should be the main controlling entity,” AFP quoted Zelenskyy as saying at the press conference.
Zelenskyy also warned against heeding to Putin’s demand to halt military aid for his country.
“I do not believe that we should make any concessions in terms of assistance for Ukraine, but rather there should be an increase in assistance for Ukraine,” added Zelenskyy.
After the highly anticipated Trump-Putin call on Tuesday, the much-anticipated ceasefire concerning energy infrastructure strikes lasted only an hour as Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of launching air attacks.
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The Kremlin accused Ukraine of countering US-Russia efforts to resolve the conflict, saying it had tried to strike Russian energy infrastructure after Putin and Trump agreed a halt on such attacks.
“Unfortunately, so far see there has been no reciprocity on the part of the Kyiv regime. There were attempts to strike our energy infrastructure,” AFP quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
“These attacks are countering our common (Russian-American) efforts,” he added.
Peskov said Putin and Trump “trust each other” and want to normalise US-Russia ties after more than three years of Moscow’s Ukraine offensive.
“Presidents Putin and Trump understand each other well, trust each other and are intent to gradually move towards the normalisation of ties,” AFP quoted Peskov as saying.
Late Tuesday, Trump’s war envoy, Steve Witkoff, announced that new peace talks between American and Russian negotiators are set to take place this weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
With inputs from agencies