Russia pounded Kyiv with drone strikes on Wednesday, hitting railway infrastructure, warehouses and fuel stations, just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
At least two people were killed and more than 30 were injured in the attack, which lasted for hours from the morning into early afternoon, officials said, in one of the heaviest strikes since Russia began attacking Kyiv and nearby areas over the summer with faster and high-flying jet drones that are harder to intercept.
Addressing the UN on Wednesday afternoon, Zelenskyy did not mention the morning attacks but urged the world’s leaders to keep choking Russia’s revenues and impede its war efforts, telling the assembly that “Russia’s revenues must remain a target.”
“When someone gives Russia more money through trade, they give this war more time. And that is exactly why we insist on limiting trade with the aggressor, and why we are burning Russia’s revenues ourselves,” he said, speaking in English.
Highlighting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drive to continue the war despite heavy Russian losses, Zelenskyy warned that Putin will continue pushing farther into Europe.
“Please, everyone here, do not be the last to join those who defend life. Be the first to say we guaranteed security,” he said.
Russia gets its turn Saturday to address the assembly.
Firefighters extinguish a fire at a burning building following a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday. (Danylo Antoniuk/The Associated Press)
Ahead of his address, Zelenskyy spoke at the Crimean Platform summit at the UN, where he told leaders that Ukraine was ready for a maritime truce in the Black Sea based on proposals by Egypt, India and Turkey. Top wheat importers in Asia, the Middle East and Africa that count on the Black Sea region for wheat have been finding it hard to secure supplies, and wheat prices have soared.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday that both Russia and Ukraine had expressed interest in a limited ceasefire involving grain and energy, while cautioning a deal on those points “won’t be easy.”
“It doesn’t solve the war, but it does, I think, in some ways potentially alleviate some of the global pressures that are being felt,” Rubio said.
The U.S. diplomat said there are no plans for a one-on-one meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, but he said the Russian president has been invited to attend the G20 summit in December in Florida.
“We think it’s an opportunity for [Putin] to engage not just with the president, but with other world leaders,” he said.
Trump hosted Putin in Alaska last year, but their meeting did not lead to a breakthrough to end the war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022. While Putin is subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, the U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of that court.
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Russia not interested in meeting with Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy met with Trump on Tuesday on the UN sidelines, where they discussed a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets and asked for increased supplies of U.S. Patriot air defence missiles to defend against an expected Russian winter campaign against Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure. No agreements were reached, he said.
Trump said last week that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to strike energy targets, but any semblance of a truce disappeared when petrol stations in Kyiv were struck the following day and Ukraine bombed a Russian oil refinery.
For his part, Zelenskyy has said he was ready for “any format” of an energy ceasefire with Moscow, as long as Russia halted its own attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure — something he doubts the Kremlin will honour.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volydymyr Zelenskyy discussed a possible pause on striking Russian energy sites over fears of spiralling diesel prices. Ukraine and Russia traded more strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure overnight Tuesday.
The Kremlin cautioned on Wednesday ahead of the Rubio-Lavrov meeting that there were still no grounds for Ukraine peace talks to take place.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin stood ready to meet Trump one-on-one if both leaders deemed such a meeting necessary. But he made it clear that Russia’s stance on the possibility of Putin and Zelenskyy meeting in person had not changed.
Peskov also played down the idea of a trilateral summit with the three presidents.
“Generally speaking, in any other circumstances, it would be inappropriate to hold a summit meeting before the groundwork has been laid at expert level, as this would be a waste of time,” he said.
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U.S. ponders diesel export ban
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said Monday he had discussed with Trump initiatives aimed at securing a moratorium on attacks linked to the energy sector.
The French leader said helping Ukraine’s energy system remained a priority as the war continued to affect security across Europe and that he hoped progress could be made during the annual gathering of leaders at the United Nations.
While Trump has blamed the attacks for soaring diesel prices in the U.S., most economic experts believe the U.S.-initiated Iran war has been a bigger factor.
Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer at The Atlantic, argues that the foreign policy of the United States has shifted from the promotion of democracy around the world to the enrichment of individuals and companies close to the administration of President Donald Trump.
Trump said Tuesday he backed the idea of a diesel export ban supported by some Republican legislators in agricultural states. But it’s not unanimously supported by all Republican members of Congress, and it puts the president at odds with his own energy officials, who warn it could raise fuel prices on the coasts and tighten supplies for European allies.
Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, said that a ban would be unlikely to lower petroleum prices and could lead to retaliatory measures by energy exporting countries, which states like California rely on for some of their energy.
In a Tuesday interview with Fox News, Rubio suggested there was another reason for the U.S. concern about the strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.
“The one thing we are concerned about, however, is that over the last few months, on a number of occasions, American-linked ships, American oil supplies have been targeted, probably not deliberately, but targeted nonetheless by Ukraine,” said Rubio, not specifying which U.S. companies he was referring to.
In Russia, the Economy Ministry expects the country to produce and export less natural gas this year than previously forecast, according to a draft government document seen by Reuters. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Russia had also downgraded its 2026 oil output forecast to a 17-year low and revised the fuel export outlook for this year and next due to the war with Ukraine.
Natural gas production and export forecasts have been revised down against the background of ruptured economic and political ties with the West over the Ukraine war and the European Union’s plans to stop all purchases of Russian gas from next year. Russia’s gas exports to Europe tumbled 44 per cent last year to the lowest amount since the mid-1970s, according to Reuters calculations, following the closure of the Ukrainian transit route.