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Trump Administration Proposes Ukraine-Russia Energy Ceasefire and Grain Corridor Deal
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The US President Donald Trump administration is pushing a three-step diplomatic proposal aimed at de-escalating the war in Ukraine and reviving negotiations with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Axios in an interview on September 23.
The US framework focuses on establishing an immediate ceasefire on energy infrastructure, reopening the Black Sea grain corridor, and convening a trilateral meeting between the US, Ukraine, and Russia, potentially in Abu Dhabi.
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The diplomatic push follows recent discussions at the UN General Assembly in New York, where Zelenskyy indicated Ukraine’s readiness to halt energy strikes if Russia does the same.
He also floated the upcoming G20 summit in Miami as a potential venue for leader-level talks with the US, Ukraine and Russia.
According to Zelenskyy, the US is prioritizing the mutual halt to strikes on energy infrastructure—driven partly by Washington’s domestic economic interests, as Ukrainian attacks on Russian diesel fuel have contributed to rising global energy prices.
“On the table now there is a proposition: energy ceasefire. We are ready,” Zelenskyy told Axios, noting that Kyiv is open to the US proposal.
The US diplomatic effort accelerated following a visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe three weeks ago, followed by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveling to both Moscow and Kyiv. Following a three-hour meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on September 5, the envoys briefed Zelenskyy in Ukraine.
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Zelenskyy recalled that the US envoys were highly optimistic about Moscow’s willingness to negotiate.
“They said, 'We think that Putin is ready.' I said, 'Look, I’m not sure, '” Zelenskyy stated, Axios wrote.
According to the Ukrainian president, the envoys pushed back, telling him: “No, we are close.”
Despite Washington’s optimism, Zelenskyy remains deeply skeptical of Putin’s intentions, expressing doubt that the Russian leader will follow through with a trilateral meeting. The Kremlin publicly stated on September 23 that conditions are not ready for resuming peace talks and that there are no current prospects for high-level meetings, Axios wrote.
Underscoring that reality, Russia launched multiple ballistic missiles toward Kyiv minutes before Zelenskyy sat down for the Axios interview, and he received updates about the strikes throughout the conversation.
Regarding his September 22 meeting with President Trump in New York, Zelenskyy described the US leader as “very positive” about the diplomatic push.
Trump told him, “We will try,” according to Zelenskyy. “I said, 'Great, and really wish you not only to try [but] to succeed.'”
Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine wants to see concrete progress before the onset of winter, regardless of the US political calendar. US and Ukrainian negotiating teams—including Witkoff, Kushner, and national security advisers from France, the UK, and Germany—met on September 22to refine the proposals, Axios reported.
Ukrainian officials noted that elements of the plan will be developed over the next two weeks before American envoys present them to Moscow again.
Additionally, Zelenskyy noted he has discussed the ceasefire and grain corridor efforts with leaders from Turkey, India, the UAE, and Egypt, all of whom maintain back-channel communications with Russia.
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“Everybody wants [a] ceasefire. The corridor has to work again. We support [it]. They speak with Russians, I know. We will see,” Zelenskyy told Axios.
Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev is expected to arrive in New York on September 24 to meet with Witkoff and Kushner to discuss the latest iterations of the US proposals, according to Axios.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had recently emphasized the severe difficulty of acquiring air defense interceptors, stating that Ukraine secures them in batches of just “one or two missiles at a time” rather than in hundreds or thousands.
Speaking at a briefing in New York, Zelenskyy explained that these scarce and expensive deliveries require direct approval from allied leaders, as lower-level negotiations yield no results. Identifying the US as the only nation capable of supplying missiles at scale, Zelenskyy is directly lobbying President Donald Trump to fulfill Ukraine’s needs despite global shortages driven by commitments in the Middle East.
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