The Japan Times - Zelensky says Ukraine ready for 'de-escalatory steps'

With international oil prices climbing again, Trump had at the weekend berated Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries, blaming them for causing a shortage in diesel fuel.

In one of his surprise social media posts, the US leader announced on Monday that "Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!"

Russia made no immediate comment. But in his daily address, Zelensky highlighted "a strong proposal from the United States regarding a mutual halt to strikes on critical infrastructure".

He added: "If this can become the first de-escalatory step -- stopping Russian strikes on our critical infrastructure, and ours in response -- then Ukraine is ready to support de-escalation."

Zelensky said "we see that the Russians are feeling pressure because of our precise responses against Russia’s war economy".

He noted that "so far no one has seen any genuine desire from Russia to move toward ending the war".

"But if our American partners succeed in securing a real readiness from Russia to stop this war of destroying lives, and to do so sincerely and for the long term, Ukraine will make its own de-escalatory steps."

- Rail strikes get worse -

Trump has insisted that the Russia-Ukraine war and not the conflict with Iran, was driving up fuel costs for Americans who vote in crucial midterm elections in November.

A previous push by Trump for a ceasefire has been sidelined by the US-Israeli conflict against Iran, now in its seventh month. US envoys went to Moscow and Kyiv earlier this month without announcing a breakthrough.

While Ukraine has hit refineries deep inside Russia, Zelensky has stepped up calls for allies to provide more anti-missile defences as Russia intensifies its attacks.

Russian strikes on Ukraine's rail network are worsening each week, the CEO of the state Ukrainian Railways operator told AFP on Monday, after a strike hit a train frequently used by diplomats near the Polish border at the weekend.

"It's growing exponentially. Each month, each week is generally worse than the previous one," said Oleksandr Pertsovsky.

NATO-member Poland said on Sunday that Russia hit a train about two kilometres (one mile) from the Polish-Ukraine border, just days after Kyiv officials said road crossing checkpoints on the border with Moldova had been targeted.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday that Warsaw had obtained information that Moscow might be planning attacks on border crossings.

- EU delays sanctions deadline -

But European Union countries on Monday delayed a deadline for prolonging sanctions on Russia after France pushed for billionaire Alisher Usmanov to be removed from a blacklist, diplomats said.

An EU list of almost 3,000 individuals and entities -- which needs to be extended every six months -- was set to expire by Wednesday.

However ambassadors from the 27 EU member states pushed back the deadline one week after the late efforts from Paris to remove 73-year-old Uzbek-Russian metals tycoon Usmanov drew opposition, the diplomats said.

Usmanov, a former major shareholder in Arsenal football club, was placed on the EU sanctions list in 2022 over what Brussels said were his close ties to the Kremlin.

The French move surprised some EU states.

"Renewal of the listings is essential to continue undermining Russia’s war machine, and keeping the pressure on those individuals and entities supporting, enabling and benefitting from it," a spokesman for Ireland, which currently holds the EU presidency, said.

The Financial Times reported, quoting people familiar with the issue, that France was making the push as part of a prisoner release deal involving French citizens held in Azerbaijan.

Y.Kato--JT