Zelensky: U.S. exploring Russia-Ukraine winter de-escalation steps

The U.S. is exploring whether Ukraine and Russia could take steps to de-escalate the war during the winter while restarting negotiations toward a broader peace agreement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios in an interview Monday. Why it matters: The Ukrainian president believes the weeks before winter offer a window for diplomacy. While Zelensky said he's convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin is counting on another brutal winter to weaken Ukraine, he added that Putin "needs Trump" and doesn't want to antagonize the U.S. president ahead of the midterm elections."My feeling [is] that Putin needs Trump," Zelensky said. "He doesn't want ... to upset him."Zelensky said that even if Putin doesn't want to de-escalate, he could be pressured by the Trump administration to do so.When asked whether Putin might want to give Trump a diplomatic win before the U.S. elections, Zelensky replied: "Yeah."Driving the news: Zelensky met in Kyiv on Sunday with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. It was their first visit to Ukraine since Trump started his second term. Kushner and Witkoff traveled to Kyiv after holding a three-hour meeting with Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday. Zelensky said the message he received from the U.S. envoys was that "the Russians are ready to negotiate."He remains skeptical, however, because Russia's actions on the battlefield and its recent escalation of attacks don't demonstrate a willingness to compromise.But Zelensky said his understanding after the U.S. envoys' trip is that Putin is "ready to discuss" ideas for moving negotiations forward.Behind the scenes: Zelensky said the U.S. envoys came to Moscow and Kyiv primarily to "unblock" the diplomatic process, but also brought some new ideas.He declined to disclose all the details but said some of the discussions involved potential de-escalation steps from Russia and Ukraine ahead of and during the winter. "There are ideas around energy [facilities] and around grain [shipments], around electricity [facilities] and around oil and gas [exports]. We have different interests, Russia and we," Zelensky said. Asked whether the emerging U.S. approach involves both restarting negotiations and trying to reach understandings that would allow Ukraine and Russia to get through the winter without a major escalation, Zelensky said that interpretation was "very close to the reality of these conversations."He described the first objective as resuming negotiations and the second as trying to make the coming winter different from previous ones, when Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure heightened the war.The goal, he said, would be to find steps before or during the winter "which can bring [the] sides closer to the peace."Yes, but: U.S. officials say they don't know if it will be possible to address the interests of both Russia and Ukraine ahead of winter. Countless previous attempts to reach ceasefires or pause strikes on energy facilities have failed. What to watc