Zelenskyy Asks Trump for Trilateral Putin Meeting, Patriot Missile Licenses as Kremlin Calls Summit 'Premature'

Since Tuesday's Trump-Zelenskyy sideline meeting at the UN General Assembly in New York, on day 1,673 of Russia's full-scale invasion, the diplomatic push to end the war before winter has produced a stack of specific asks from Kyiv and one blunt rejection from Moscow.

Zelenskyy told reporters after the meeting that Ukraine is ready for "any kind of format of energy ceasefire" if Russia agrees not to strike Ukraine's electricity, heating and water infrastructure, according to CNBC and The Guardian. He said US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will carry that proposal to Moscow, according to Anadolu Agency.

Zelenskyy also asked Trump directly to organize a trilateral summit with Vladimir Putin. "I'm ready. I said it, I'm ready anytime when all the sides will be ready. I think we all need to move as quickly as possible," he told reporters, per CNBC.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov shot that down Wednesday. A Putin-Zelenskyy meeting before expert-level talks happen would be a "waste of time," Peskov said, according to Russia's state-run RIA Novosti. Peskov added that Putin's actual position hasn't changed: "Zelensky, if he wishes, can come to Moscow."

Trump told the UN General Assembly the war is going to end "more quickly than people understand" and said of a deal, "We will get that one done." The Guardian's reporting notes there's "little evidence of Putin being open to any settlement," and Peskov's comment backs that up. Two leaders can want a deal on paper while the guy actually running Russia's war says a summit is premature.

Patriot missiles are the other big ask

Zelenskyy pressed Trump on two defense priorities for the coming winter: a fresh package of Patriot interceptor missiles, and US licenses letting Ukraine manufacture the Patriot system domestically. He said domestic production could start within a year to a year and a half, according to Anadolu Agency and the Epoch Times.

On licenses, Zelenskyy said Trump was "positive." On actual missile deliveries, he got nothing firm. "No one said 'no,' but I did not receive a particularly specific answer," Zelenskyy told reporters, according to Anadolu. He noted Ukraine and Germany already have a separate contract for 600 Patriot missiles in two 300-missile batches, outside of whatever Washington decides.

Raytheon, the US defense contractor that builds the Patriot, is reportedly ready to support production in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, according to the Epoch Times.

Who actually asked whom to stop bombing what

There's been confusion over whether Trump demanded Ukraine unilaterally halt strikes on Russian oil refineries. Zelenskyy cleared that up directly: Trump did not make that demand at Tuesday's meeting, though American partners have raised the issue before, according to Anadolu Agency. Zelenskyy separately told The Wall Street Journal, per The Guardian's reporting, that Trump didn't ask him to stop bombing refineries this time around.

Trump has previously and publicly pushed Ukraine to lay off refinery strikes, blaming them for pushing US diesel prices to record highs. Russia has already suspended diesel exports through the end of September on its own, according to Benzinga. Zelenskyy, for his part, said Ukrainian long-range strikes on a major Russian oil facility and logistics site near Moscow had a "significant" impact, hitting assets he estimated are worth billions of dollars to Russia's war funding.

China's leverage and the money argument

Zelenskyy pushed a different pressure point in his Wall Street Journal interview: China and India. "It's enough to stop them, they will not have enough money," he said of Russia, arguing that if Beijing and New Delhi stopped buying Russian oil, Moscow's war economy would collapse, according to The Guardian. He urged Trump to raise the war directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling Xi's leverage over Putin decisive.

Russia has kept its economy running through nearly four years of Western sanctions partly because China, India and Turkey kept buying its oil. Whether Trump is willing to spend political capital pressuring Beijing on this, on top of everything else on the table with China, hasn't been answered by any source here.

The security backdrop

Separately from the diplomatic track, NATO's deputy commander in Europe, Air Chief Marshal Sir John Stringer, told the Associated Press at a security conference in Estonia that Putin is becoming "increasingly cavalier, dangerous and risk accepting" as the war drags on, warning allies to watch for a "febrile environment" where Moscow could try to provoke NATO into overreacting, according to The Guardian. Officials in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were reportedly more cautious about the buildup warning, noting they haven't observed Russian troop movements near their borders.

The next concrete marker: Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York on Wednesday, according to Anadolu Agency. That meeting, not another Trump tweet, is the actual test of whether Moscow will engage on the energy ceasefire Zelenskyy put on the table.