But after his latest European trip, Zelenskyy brought home no NATO invitation and no end to the ban on long-range strikes — prompting him to hunt for other ways to mitigate the worst consequences of the war.
The idea is to show Russian leader Vladimir Putin that, in the third year of fighting, he can’t win the war and that it makes sense to start talking.
A first step would be to curtail the most dangerous forms of attacks, a tired-looking Zelenskyy, dressed in his signature black sweater and cargo pants, told reporters gathered in a baroque-style meeting hall in the presidential office.
Zelenskyy mentioned reaching a mutual agreement with Russia not to strike each other’s energy facilities. While Russia frequently hits Ukraine’s power plants, Kyiv also attacks electricity substations in border regions of Russia and has been bombing Russian refineries and oil storage depots.
“In other words: we do not attack their energy; they do not attack our energy. Does this lead to the end of the hot stage? I think so. Because this is a part of the war that is very dangerous for us,” Zelenskyy said. Ukraine faces a cold and dark winter after Russia escalated its attacks on power stations and electricity distribution and transmission facilities.
The demand to stop attacking energy facilities is part of a wider deescalation vision Ukraine has been pushing since the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland in June. More than 80 countries agreed to help Kyiv press Russia to fulfill three crucial points of the Ukrainian peace formula: energy security, food security and the return of all POWs.