US President Donald Trump has told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the US could take ownership and operate Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, part of his latest effort to secure a ceasefire in the Russian offensive.
The proposal comes as military chiefs from around 30 countries interested in securing a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine are set to meet in Britain on Thursday to discuss peacekeeping plans.
After a conversation with Trump on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Zelensky said Kiev was “ready” to stop attacks on Russia’s energy networks and infrastructure, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to stop similar attacks on Ukraine.
Zelensky said they also discussed Trump’s plan to acquire a power plant. “We only talked about one power plant that is in Russian possession,” Zelensky, who is on an official visit to Finland, said in an online briefing, referring to the plant in Zaporizhia.
He said he “felt no pressure” from Trump to make concessions to Russia. But a comprehensive ceasefire remains elusive, as Putin insisted in his own conversation with Trump on Tuesday that the West must first halt all military aid to Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have said they are ready to deploy British and French troops in Ukraine. The UK government has said a “significant number” of countries are prepared to do so, but it is unclear how many are interested.
Trump’s tone was notably positive after his call with Zelensky on Wednesday, despite a recent televised altercation between the two men in the Oval Office that the White House described as “wonderful.”
“Trump discussed ‘Ukraine’s power supply and nuclear power plants’ and said Washington would be ‘very helpful’ in operating them,” National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a joint statement. “American ownership of those plants would be the best security for that infrastructure.”
Ending the war
The statement also said Trump had promised to help Kiev obtain more air defense equipment from Europe and find Ukrainian children who had been “kidnapped” by Russia. He had previously said on his Truth social network that efforts to achieve a full ceasefire were “very much on track.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian and American officials could meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days for new talks, where Russian and American teams are also expected to meet early next week. Moscow said on Wednesday that Russia and Ukraine had exchanged 372 prisoners, a move planned as a goodwill gesture following a Trump-Putin phone call.
However, Kiev and Moscow have consistently accused each other of aggression. Russia said it destroyed 132 Ukrainian drones in overnight strikes in various areas across the country. Ukrainian emergency services said on Thursday that eight people, including a child, were injured in a Russian drone strike on a residential building in Kropyvnytskyi, central Ukraine.
Don’t trust Putin
The main obstacle remains Putin’s resistance to a full ceasefire, with Kiev and some Western allies insisting that the Russian president cannot be trusted. In a conversation with Trump on Tuesday, Putin stressed that a full ceasefire would only be possible if the West agreed to Moscow’s long-standing demand to halt billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine.
Putin has also demanded that Ukraine not be allowed to re-arm and that conscription be stopped. Moscow and Washington also disagreed on the outcome of the phone conversation. The Kremlin has said it only discussed preventing attacks on power plants, but the White House has stressed that the talks include both energy and other civilian infrastructure.
Trump’s call to Putin and the signal that Washington will no longer guarantee European security have also alarmed Kiev and the United States’ NATO allies. “I don’t trust Putin at all, not a word. He only understands force,” said Lev Sholodko, a 32-year-old resident of Kiev.
In Moscow, locals were more optimistic that negotiations could end the fighting to Russia’s advantage. “Of course it is in our favor,” said Larisa, a 46-year-old Moscow resident, referring to the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. “There is no other way. What happened in 1945 will happen now.”
