Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine would stop attacking Russian oil refineries, as US President Donald Trump has demanded, if Washington supplied Patriot air-defence missiles quickly, RFE/RL reports.
In an interview with Fox News on 1 November, Zelenskyy said Kyiv could not leave Russian attacks on its power grid unanswered, but offered a trade: for each month of Patriot supplies, Ukraine would pause refinery strikes for a month. He said Ukraine would pay for the missiles rather than seek them as aid.
The US State Department approved a $2.1 billion sale of 500 PAC-3 interceptors to Ukraine on 30 October, but Zelenskyy has warned that deliveries might not start for several years. Trump, under pressure over high energy prices at home, has called for both sides to stop hitting energy infrastructure as winter approaches.
Source: RFE/RL