Russian strikes killed at least six people — two in Kyiv and four in the Donetsk region — hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered a bilateral ceasefire on energy infrastructure during talks with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York [1][5]. The proposal, which Zelenskyy said Ukraine would accept if Russia reciprocated, was rejected by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov within 24 hours at the UN Security Council [14][28].
Zelenskyy told Trump that Ukraine would halt strikes on Russian energy facilities if Moscow stopped attacking Ukrainian infrastructure, describing the meeting — put at roughly 40 minutes in some accounts and nearly an hour in others — as positive and productive [6][17][33]. Trump said afterward that a deal would be reached, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pressed both sides to stop reciprocal attacks on energy infrastructure, calling it a limited but worthwhile basis for discussion [10][28][14]. French President Emmanuel Macron advocated a "double moratorium" on strikes against energy sites in both Russia and Ukraine, and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he lobbied Trump for the ceasefire and promised further funds for Kyiv's infrastructure [28][33]. Zelenskyy also told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that Ukraine supports holding a leaders-level trilateral summit in Turkey [43].
Lavrov rejected any pause in military operations, stating at the Security Council that Russia would not suspend its "special military operation" during negotiations in any format and accusing European states of seeking a ceasefire only to rearm Kyiv [14][28]. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there were no prerequisites for moving onto a peaceful negotiating track and that any Putin-Zelenskyy meeting would require the Ukrainian leader to travel to Moscow, while offering security guarantees [1][26]. Financial Times sources reported that Putin does not want an energy truce before winter because strikes on Ukrainian energy can pressure Kyiv into concessions [38].
Russian drone strikes on Kyiv on September 23 killed two people and injured at least 43, setting the historic Shayba railway market ablaze and damaging residential buildings across the Holosiivskyi, Darnitskyi, and Solomianskyi districts [12][1]. Zelenskyy accused Russia of turning civilian and critical infrastructure — pharmaceutical facilities, gas stations, railways, communications infrastructure, and shopping malls — into targets [1][12]. Russian missile and drone attacks on Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, and Pavlohrad killed four people and cut power to nearly 100,000 in northern Ukraine [5][29]. A resident of Kyiv's Solomianskyi district described a terrifying early-morning explosion that blew open windows [12]. In Izioum, a businessman said four bombs demolished his hangars and that residents were beginning to leave the city [16]. French Minister for Europe Jean-Noël Barrot accused Russia of "using winter, the cold, and denial of the most basic needs as weapons of mass destruction, targeting civilian population" [3].
Russian officials framed Ukrainian strikes as attacks on civilians. Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted 297 Ukrainian drones overnight [5][29]. The governor of Samara region reported one person killed and four injured in a Ukrainian drone attack, and local coverage said the strike targeted industrial enterprises but damaged residential buildings [29][39]. Lavrov insisted Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure must cease because they destabilize energy markets, and the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Kyiv's actions aim to attack the civilian population and cross-border infrastructure [7].
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Zelenskyy accused Putin of using citizens of 47 countries — including North Korea, Ghana, and India — to fight in Ukraine, and urged those governments not to let Putin drag them into the war [24][21][35]. He cited two captured North Korean soldiers transferred to South Korea and called Kim Jong Un's troop dispatch madness [42][24]. Zelenskyy labeled Putin "Patient Zero" of warmongering and warned that Russia's ambitions extend beyond eastern Ukraine to Kyiv, Moldova, Poland, and the Baltic states [23][7][22]. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the war ends if Russia stops fighting, and UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband rejected border changes by force [3].
Zelenskyy warned that if no energy truce is agreed, Ukraine would make the coming winter painful for Russia and urged leaders to keep choking Russia's revenues [8][27]. He stated that Russia's budget deficit is at a record high and that Russia lost more than 248,000 troops killed or seriously wounded in eight months for just over 1,000 square kilometers of territory [20][31]. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called the EU's removal of sanctions on oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman unacceptable, saying it gave Moscow a sense of impunity [4]. Usmanov called the EU's 2022 decision to freeze his assets "unfair," and Peskov welcomed the delisting [4].
Trump cited the diesel-price impact of Ukrainian refinery strikes, saying the strikes were "a serious hit on the price of diesel" [33]. Accounts of the exchange differ: Al Jazeera reported that Trump pressed Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian refineries over a global diesel shortage and rising prices [1], while Zelenskyy said Trump made no such request [6]. Vitol Chief Executive Russell Hardy said the market is missing about two million barrels per day of Russian products and another two million from the Middle East [44]. The broader fuel-price surge is not driven by the Ukraine war alone: Brazil's government announced a fuel-subsidy package costing an estimated R$7 billion per month in response to Middle East-conflict-driven price rises, with Planning Minister Bruno Moretti saying "O povo não pode pagar por uma guerra que não é dele" (The people cannot pay for a war that is not theirs) [47]. In Nigeria and Sierra Leone, fuel price spikes tied to the Middle East fighting drove consumer stockpiling and higher transport fares [46]. Thailand's SCB EIC warned that Middle East war damage to gas supply could keep LNG prices and electricity costs elevated for up to two years [48].
Analysts and restraint-oriented commentators judged the peace push as lacking leverage. Responsible Statecraft argued Trump has no coercive power, that Russia will refuse an energy ceasefire because winter suffering falls harder on Ukraine, and that depleted US interceptor stockpiles make weapons requests pointless [17]. Geopolitics expert Samir Puri warned that if Russia strikes Ukrainian energy infrastructure and causes blackouts, some Ukrainian cities could become uninhabitable, and judged that Russia has little interest in accepting a truce [28]. Political scientist John Mearsheimer holds that the war will be settled by Russia on the battlefield [17]. UN News noted that any Security Council resolution still runs up against Russia's veto as a permanent member [30].
Rubio announced that Washington invited Putin to the G20 summit in Miami on December 14–15, though Bloomberg reported Putin plans to attend APEC in China but skip the G20 [11]. Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs at least 300 Patriot interceptor missiles to get through the winter [41]. Bloomberg reported that Russia may be stockpiling ballistic missiles for winter strikes on energy infrastructure, and that Ukrainians are buying generators, firewood, and warm clothing as firewood prices rose 70–80 percent [41].