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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke Sunday with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner amid a public rift with President Donald Trump, saying “a lot depends on America” in the war with Russia.
The call came as Russia and Ukraine again hit each other’s energy infrastructure.
Russian strikes left tens of thousands of Ukrainians without power, while Kyiv launched what Russian state media called the largest drone attack on Saint Petersburg since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.
After speaking with Witkoff, Trump’s business partner, and Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, Zelenskyy said “it is clear that there are many things that matter to all of us and that this war must be brought to an end.”
He said Ukraine was ready to work “constructively” and “honestly” and expected the same from its partners, “both from the Europeans and, of course, from the American side.”
He added that he had discussed deliveries of US Patriot air defense systems, as Ukraine struggles to counter Russian missiles.
Trump and Zelenskyy have clashed in recent weeks. The US leader blocked new sanctions on Russia and struck a diesel deal with Moscow, raising fears in Kyiv and across Europe that the White House was tilting toward Russia.
In an earlier interview with NBC, Zelenskyy warned it would be a “historic mistake” if Washington formally sided with Russia and said he hoped Trump would “change his decisions.”
He also said he was “thankful” that the United States had resumed intelligence sharing after a pause that left Ukraine more exposed to Russian missile strikes.
A US-led push to end the war has not produced a breakthrough, and Trump has at times grown frustrated with both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the lack of progress.
Zelenskyy said Russia had violated Trump’s “energy ceasefire” 76 times and accused Moscow of planning to deprive Ukrainians of heat and electricity before winter.
Russian strikes left “tens of thousands” of people without power in several regions, he said, and Ukrainian officials reported that three people were killed.
Ukrainian drones struck Saint Petersburg overnight, setting an oil refinery ablaze, according to Moscow.
Smoke was visible above the historic city center on the banks of the Neva River. Governor Alexander Beglov said one person was killed and five were hospitalized. Firefighters battled blazes at the city’s oil terminal, the Ruchyi oil depot and industrial warehouses, he said.
Russian social network VKontakte said its data center was hit, and Ozon, Russia’s second-largest retailer, reported damage to a logistics center.
Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the surrounding Leningrad region, said air defenses shot down 144 Ukrainian drones.
He said 20,000 people lost power in the town of Yanino after a substation was hit, and that a woman and three children were hospitalized with “symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning” after drone debris fell on a house and sparked a fire.
The Kremlin said the strikes would not alter its war aims. “The Kyiv regime is putting up a fight, but that cannot change the course of events,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media.
Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine, and in the war’s fifth year few see a way out.
Moscow has pounded Ukrainian cities daily with drones and missiles, and Kyiv says its own strikes are fair retribution.
Ukrainian attacks caused nationwide fuel shortages in Russia earlier this year.
Residents of Saint Petersburg described a grim familiarity. “They’re attacking, we’re attacking, it’s become the dreadful routine of war,” 58-year-old Galina told AFP.
Another 58-year-old, Sergei, said he felt his apartment block shake and worried that petrol stations would run dry. Igor, 40, who woke to bangs and a fire outside his window, said the attacks were “getting on my nerves already.”
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