Ukraine and Russia are in the early stages of talks about halting air strikes on each other’s energy facilities, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
The FT, citing sources late Tuesday that include senior Ukrainian officials, said Ukraine wants to restart talks that came close to a deal in August and were mediated by Qatar.
The talks were derailed that month by Kiev’s forces’ incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, the sources told the FT.
“There are very early talks about potentially restarting something,” the FT said, citing a diplomat who was briefed by the newspaper on the talks. “There are now talks on energy facilities.”
Reuters could not independently confirm the report. The Kremlin, the Russian Defence Ministry, the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The FT said the Kremlin has declined to comment and Zelensky’s office did not respond to its requests for comment.
A large part of Ukraine’s power capacity has been destroyed or seized due to Russian attacks on energy infrastructure since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour in 2022, leaving Kiev dependent on its nuclear power facilities and energy imports from Europe.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last month that Russia had knocked out gigawatts, equivalent to more than half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The EU aims to restore 2.5 gigawatts of capacity, about 15% of the country’s needs, he said, referring to proposed EU-funded repairs.
Ukraine had no powerful long-range weapons at the start of the war but has since developed long-range attack drones and used them to hit targets deep inside Russia, from oil refineries to power plants and military airfields.
In early October Zelensky told the FT that an agreement to protect energy facilities could be a sign of Russia’s willingness to join broader peace talks. Moscow says it wants peace but has set conditions that Kiev sees as unacceptable.
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