Zelensky: U.S. pushing energy ceasefire, trilateral talks with Russia

The Trump administration is pushing for three immediate steps in its effort to de-escalate the war in Ukraine and restart diplomacy with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios in an interview on Wednesday: A ceasefire on energy infrastructure.Reopening the Black Sea grain corridor. A trilateral U.S.-Russia-Ukraine meeting, possibly in Abu Dhabi.Why it matters: President Trump is engaged in a renewed effort to revive a diplomatic track to end the war, but his immediate priority is a deal to halt Ukrainian attacks on Russian diesel fuel — which have contributed to punishing prices in the U.S. and globally.But after several days of diplomacy and meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week, an energy ceasefire looks elusive. It's unclear if Russian President Vladimir Putin even wants it. Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev will arrive in New York on Thursday for a meeting with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to discuss the latest U.S. proposals, according to a source with direct knowledge. Driving the news: Zelensky spoke with Trump on Tuesday in New York about efforts to end the war and a possible energy ceasefire.Later on Tuesday, Witkoff and Kushner met with Ukraine's negotiations team and the national security advisers of France, the UK and Germany. Zelensky told Axios the proposal for a mutual halt to strikes on energy infrastructure came from the U.S. and that Ukraine is ready to agree."On the table now there is a proposition: energy ceasefire. We are ready," he said.Zelensky added that the U.S. is also seeking to reopen the grain corridor and convene a trilateral meeting between the U.S., Ukraine and Russia.Zoom in: The last U.S.-Ukraine-Russia meeting took place in February before the war with Iran. Since then, negotiations have gone into a deep freeze. Zelensky said he told Trump he would prefer to hold a trilateral meeting and make an energy ceasefire one of its first concrete outcomes.The U.S. raised the possibility of first holding a meeting between technical teams, as opposed to a meeting at the leaders level. It floated Abu Dhabi as a possible venue, Zelensky said."We are open — any country, any format," he said.The Ukrainian president said he told Trump during their meeting that December's G20 summit in Miami could also be an opportunity for a leader-level trilateral summit. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Trump invited Putin to attend the summit.Zelensky also said simply getting the three sides into the same room would itself be a significant step toward de-escalation.Catch up quick: The current push for resuming negotiations started three weeks ago when CIA director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow. It was followed by Witkoff and Kushner traveling to Moscow and Kyiv.They met Putin for three hours in Moscow on Sept. 5 and then traveled to Kyiv to meet Zelensky. After they returned, Trump had a long phone cal