US proposes to the EU that Russian assets be unfrozen. Zelensky: new raids on refineries

The United States has proposed to European countries that they unfreeze certain Russian sovereign assets – which were frozen following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and transfer them to a financial vehicle under Washington’s supervision, in an attempt to revive peace negotiations. This is reported by the Financial Times, citing sources who say the idea was mooted during last week’s meeting in Miami between American and Ukrainian negotiators and officials from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO. The European delegates rejected the plan.

Whilst on the diplomatic front the United States has made yet another move towards rapprochement with Putin’s Russia, the war front reports that three people were killed and six wounded overnight as a result of Russian air strikes on Kropyvnytskyi. This is according to Ukrinform. The entire Kirovohrad region has been the target of a massive attack by Moscow, Ukrinform also reports, emphasising that the targets included logistics, transport and a number of industrial sites. Two more people died following the destruction of a private home in the village of Novooleksandrivka, in the Dnipro district. Local authorities reported this on Telegram – as reported by the Kyiv Independent – without specifying what weapons were used by the Russian armed forces. In Pavlohrad, several private homes caught fire and the emergency services were called to the scene. It is not yet known whether there are any injuries or fatalities.

In the last few hours, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken out again about alleged “energy truce” promoted by Trump – a commitment by the two warring parties to refrain from attacking or damaging energy infrastructure such as refineries and power stations – but for which there is no objective evidence. “When President Trump spoke of the energy truce, I wasn’t aware of it beforehand, but we supported it, of course. After all, we need our people to survive, to get through the winter and for the war to end. That is exactly what we are aiming for. He spoke of an ‘energy ceasefire’ and, for three days, we did not strike any energy infrastructure.” Zelenskyy made this statement in an interview with the British journalist Piers Morgan, reported by Interfax Ukraine, emphasising that the Russians, on the other hand, continued to attack Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure.

In another interview with the Financial Times, Zelenskyy then returned to the subject, announcing a resumption of Kyiv’s attacks on Russian oil refineries and expressing his anger at the “dangerous” suspension of intelligence-sharing by the United States, as well as at the simultaneous weakening of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. “The pause (in attacks on refineries) is over. We’ve called it a day,” Zelensky told the Financial Times.

The Trump administration, for its part, has rejected the accusation that it restricted access to the Starlink service, which Ukraine uses for its military operations. A senior US official made this statement to Axios. The accusations levelled by Zelensky regarding the deterioration of the internet service provided by Starlink have also provoked an irritated reaction from Elon Musk. “And so the slaughter continues… It’s time for Zelensky to go,” Musk wrote in a post published in response to Zelensky’s accusations in his interview with Piers Morgan (in which the Ukrainian president said that the satellite slowdowns “are killing people”), shifting the blame onto the US government and emphasising that “any limit on speed or usage is decided by the US military and, ultimately, by the President of the United States”.