“President Trump is adamant that we need to get everybody to the table, and we could do that with carrots, and we can do that with sticks,” Kevin Hassett, director of the President’s National Economic Council, told reporters.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed calls for a mutual halt to aerial attacks on critical infrastructure after the latest Russian attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photo / AFP
His proposal to halt aerial bombardments on energy facilities builds on growing rhetoric from Kyiv, Washington and Moscow on halting the war, now in its fourth year.
The Ukrainian leader said the first steps to establishing real peace should be stopping both Russian and Ukrainian aerial and naval attacks.
“Ukraine is ready to go the way of peace, and it is Ukraine that wants peace from the very first second of this war. The task is to force Russia to stop the war,” he wrote in a post on social media.
Ukraine’s allies abroad have voiced support for Zelenskyy’s truce proposal and on Friday Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who recently hosted the Ukrainian leader, also gave it his backing.
The Kremlin has previously ruled out a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine.
### Air and sea truce
“We support the idea of establishing a ceasefire as soon as possible and stopping attacks in the air and at sea as a confidence-building measure between the parties,” Erdogan told an online meeting. The Russian defence ministry confirmed on Friday it had carried out “precision” strikes on energy facilities, claiming they support the Ukrainian military.
Russia is “targeting facilities linked to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Dmitry Peskov moderating Russian President Vladimir Putin's year-end press conference. Photo / AFP
The Ukrainian air force said it had deployed French Mirage fighter jets – delivered to Ukraine last month – for the first time to repel the aerial onslaught.
The fighter jets along with air-defence units shot down 34 of the missiles and 100 drones.
DTEK, the largest private energy supplier in Ukraine, said its facilities in the Black Sea region of Odesa were targeted for a fourth night in a row.
It also said gas facilities in the central Poltava region had “ceased operations” after being struck in the overnight attack.
State gas company Naftogaz also said its production facilities had been damaged, without giving details.
Authorities in at least five Ukrainian regions said Russia had targeted energy facilities.
The latest Russian air assault came after European Union (EU) leaders, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement, agreed to boost the bloc’s defences.
### US, Ukrainian officials to meet
EU chiefs on Friday briefed several Nato partners – including Britain and Turkey – about the outcome of a meeting on defence of the bloc’s leaders in Brussels a day earlier.
“Our co-operation with likeminded Nato partners is vital for international security. For Ukraine. For stepping up our joint efforts on defence,” Antonio Costa, who heads the body representing EU member states, said in a post on X.
Washington said talks with Kyiv were back on track to secure a ceasefire with Moscow – after a public falling out between Trump and Zelenskyy last Friday.
US and Ukrainian officials were expected to meet Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, a senior Kyiv official said, with Zelenskyy voicing hope for a “meaningful meeting”. Zelenskyy himself will travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
US envoy Steve Witkoff said he would speak to Ukrainian negotiators about an “initial ceasefire” with Russia and a “framework” for a longer agreement.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said Russia was trying to “hurt ordinary Ukrainians by shelling energy and gas production facilities”. Eight people were wounded in a strike on Kharkiv on Friday, including a woman who was later pulled from the rubble alive, city officials said.
_\- Agence France-Presse_