Trump and Zelensky Meet at UN, Both Say They Want Ukraine War Over Before Winter

President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump sat down for roughly 40 minutes on Tuesday, September 22, on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, according to Kyiv Post. It was their first meeting since July.

Both men said afterward they want Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth year, over before winter. "It's time," Trump told reporters. "A lot of people are being killed, and they don't want that." Zelensky echoed him: "I hope that we will end this war, and President Trump will help us to end this war. I think we need to do it as quick as possible, before winter."

The energy ceasefire offer

The main concrete proposal on the table is a reciprocal halt on strikes against energy infrastructure. Zelensky told reporters Ukraine is "ready for any kind of format of energy ceasefire," covering oil and diesel refineries as well as power grids, according to the Kyiv Independent. But he was blunt that Kyiv's offer is conditional: Ukraine will only stop hitting Russian energy targets if Moscow stops hitting Ukraine's.

Turkish outlet Yeni Şafak added a detail other coverage understated. Zelensky said Trump did not demand a unilateral halt from Ukraine. Instead, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to carry the ceasefire proposal to Moscow. As of Tuesday night, Russia had not publicly responded, and Zelensky said plainly, "I don't know the Russian position."

The timing is not abstract. Fox News correspondent Jeff Paul reported that Russian missiles and drones struck at least four Ukrainian regions overnight, killing five people according to Times Now, while Ukraine hit oil refineries in Russia's Samara region. Both sides are still trading energy-infrastructure strikes even as they discuss ending them.

Patriots, sanctions, and Putin

Zelensky also pressed Trump on licensing Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles domestically. He said Raytheon is ready to participate and that Trump was "positive" about granting the license, though production would take one to one-and-a-half years to stand up, according to Kyiv Post.

This isn't the first time the idea has come up. Trump first floated giving Ukraine the right to build Patriots at the NATO summit in Ankara in July, then walked it back weeks later, saying "we have not agreed to that" and that Washington has to be "very careful" sharing advanced weapons technology, per Kyiv Post's reporting. Tuesday's meeting did not produce a firm commitment either. Zelensky told reporters afterward, "No one said 'no,' but I did not receive a particularly specific answer," according to Yeni Şafak.

Separately, Zelensky said Kyiv already has a contract with Germany for 600 Patriot missiles in two batches of 300, and he asked Trump to bring Chinese President Xi Jinping into future peace negotiations.

On pressure tools, the Kyiv Independent reported that Trump has signed a sanctions bill, tied to Senator Lindsey Graham's legislation, giving him authority to impose a 100% tariff on the top five buyers of Russian oil and gas. Trump told the UN General Assembly he would use that authority "if necessary." The State Department has also approved a possible $2.7 billion sale of air defenses to Ukraine, though that sale has not yet been finalized.

As for a Putin-Zelensky sitdown, Trump told reporters "He'll meet. He's willing to meet. He wants to see the war end," per Times Now. Putin has not publicly confirmed that. The two leaders have not met face to face in seven years — a gap that underscores how far a Trump prediction is from a locked-in summit.

The skeptic's case

A reasonable skeptic would point out this is not the first time a Trump-brokered end to the war has been described as close. Talks stalled earlier in 2026 over Moscow's territorial demands and Washington's shift toward the Iran conflict, according to the Kyiv Independent. Trump's own reversal on the Patriot license in July is a data point for that caution. An offer was floated, then pulled back. Nothing announced Tuesday is a signed agreement; it's a set of proposals one side says it's ready to accept and the other hasn't yet answered.

Separately on Tuesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the Trump administration over its buyback of offshore wind leases from companies including Invenergy and Bluepoint Wind, according to the Guardian. James called the roughly $1.4 billion in payouts "illegal backroom deals" that will raise electricity bills; the Interior Department has said companies are redirecting investment toward "dependable, secure energy infrastructure." That fight is playing out in federal court and is not connected to the Ukraine energy-ceasefire talks, but it's a reminder that Trump's domestic energy priorities, favoring fossil fuels over renewables, are being litigated in parallel with his push to broker peace abroad.

The open question heading into the coming weeks: whether Witkoff and Kushner get any answer from Moscow on the energy truce, and whether that answer comes before or after winter sets in on Ukraine's power grid.