US explores Russia-Ukraine winter de-escalation steps

The United States is exploring possible steps for Russia and Ukraine to de-escalate the war during the winter while restarting negotiations toward a broader peace agreement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios on Monday. Axar.az reports that Zelensky said in an interview that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner brought new ideas during their recent meetings in Moscow and Kyiv, including potential measures involving energy facilities, grain shipments, electricity, and oil and gas exports. 'There are ideas around energy [facilities] and around grain [shipments], around electricity [facilities] and around oil and gas [exports]. We have different interests, Russia and we,' Zelensky said. He said the U.S. approach appeared to involve both restarting negotiations and reaching understandings that could help Russia and Ukraine avoid a major escalation during the winter. 'I think that President Trump can find a way to [a] real beginning of the process of negotiating before [the] cold winter,' Zelensky said. Zelensky said he remained skeptical of Russia's willingness to compromise because of its continued attacks, but said the message from the U.S. envoys was that Russian President Vladimir Putin was 'ready to discuss' ideas for moving negotiations forward.