PoliticsSeptember 14, 2026 4:59 pm • 2 min readPresident Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 6, 2026. (Yuliia Ovsiannikova/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)President Volodymyr Zelensky plans to discuss halting Russian and Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure and in the Black Sea during a possible meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump next week in New York.The meeting could take place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly between Sept. 21-23 if the presidents' schedules align. The talks would come as U.S.-led efforts to broker a broader peace deal remain stalled over Russia's territorial demands."We are open to a maritime ceasefire, as well as an energy ceasefire. I plan to discuss all of this," Zelensky said in an interview with Ukraine's national television aired on Sept. 13.According to Zelensky, if Russian President Vladimir Putin rejects a complete ceasefire, he will push for a partial agreement covering grain exports and the energy sector.Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi previously told reporters that "an in-person meeting has indeed been preliminarily agreed for later this month."The proposed ceasefire would build on recent U.S. efforts to establish limited agreements between Kyiv and Moscow. Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and Kyiv earlier this month in an attempt to break the deadlock in peace talks. The Kyiv visit was the envoys' first since the latest push to revive negotiations.People familiar with the talks told the Kyiv Independent that the envoys brought revised peace proposals, but no breakthrough was achieved as Putin appeared intent on escalating Russia's war. One of the proposals involved an energy ceasefire, the people said.Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Sept. 14 that efforts to prevent attacks on Russian "civilian economic infrastructure can certainly only be welcomed." He declined to say whether Russia was prepared to stop targeting Ukraine's economic infrastructure in return.Peskov's remarks came a day after Trump said Zelensky must "stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia," blaming Ukrainian attacks for contributing to a global diesel shortage. Trump has defended his administration's war against Iran, which has disrupted global fuel supplies.Both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly targeted each other's energy infrastructure throughout the full-scale war. Ukraine has struck Russian energy facilities and exports to disrupt a major source of funding for Moscow's war effort, while Russia has focused on Ukrainian power plants and substations in an effort to cause widespread blackouts.The idea of a limited ceasefire is not new. Ukraine has repeatedly proposed pauses in Russian attacks on critical energy infrastructure, but the Kremlin has rejected such proposals and described the energy sector as Kyiv's "Achilles' heel."The Black Sea remains another potential area for a limited agreement. Ukraine's grain exports are operating at around 40% of full capacity as Russia maintains its blockade of the Black Sea.