Earlier this month, a weekend of meetings between the White House’s Russia envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and both Russian and Ukrainian leaders was followed by a barrage of attacks on Ukraine by Russia, after the sides had agreed to a brief pause.
Now, a meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also been met with attacks on Ukraine by Russia.
Vladimir Putin In March 2018 Creative Commons Image
Putin at Award Ceremony Creative Commons Image
According to a report by Al Jazeera, not long after Trump and Zelensky met on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Russia “pounded” Ukraine once again, killing two people in Kyiv, with 30 more injured, and four more people in the Donetsk region.
Carried out with higher-flying jet drones, the attack took place in the morning and afternoon, when most attacks on Kyiv have taken place overnight.
In a social media post, President Zelensky accused Russia of attacking civilian infrastructure, including shopping malls, pharmaceutical facilities, gas stations, and railways. Separately, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russia attacked a nine-story building in Kyiv.
Politico described it as an “all-day bombing attack” in which drones struck areas of central Kyiv.
What Was Discussed
The Trump-Zelensky meeting, held in New York at the United Nations, included discussions of a possible bilateral ceasefire in which both Russia and Ukraine would agree to refrain from attacking energy infrastructure.
Per a Financial Times report, Trump urged Zelensky, in a call last Sunday, to stop striking Russian refineries, citing concerns that Ukraine’s recent attacks have contributed to global diesel shortages, which recently sent the average price of diesel above $6 for the first time in history.
“Diesel, diesel . . . diesel” was Trump’s main message in the call with Zelensky on Sunday, a Ukrainian official told the Financial Times.
In the United Nations meeting, the Ukrainian president also again asked for Patriot air defense missiles, something Trump had been cagey about supplying this summer, amid reports that American stockpiles of the weapons were themselves running low. The latter matter is seen as urgent, since Russia is expected to launch a winter offensive against Ukraine.
Per Politico, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said this week that Moscow is open to talks, but sees no reason to enter into them right now.
End of War Before Winter?
According to a New York Times story about Trump and Zelensky’s U.N. meeting on Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader said this week that he hopes the war can end before winter and that Trump will help him meet that goal. Trump, per the newspaper, nodded and agreed with that goal.
But as the newspaper made clear, that goal is easier said than done, with no recent direct talks taking place and both sides escalating their attacks. The Trump Administration, meanwhile, has been preoccupied with the Iran War, with the same two envoys also attempting to get talks off the ground in that case.
Trump also told the press that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin would agree to a meeting with Zelensky, something that has not happened in the last seven years.
An AI Warning For Zelensky
In addition to his meeting with Trump, Zelensky addressed the UN General Assembly himself on Wednesday. According to the Times, the Ukrainian leader warned that the war’s effects have begun to spread beyond Ukraine’s borders and could eventually spill into Europe and elsewhere.
Those effects, Zelensky said in the speech, have included rising energy prices, the potential for grain shortages, and the deadly arms race involving newer and deadlier forms of drone technology.
The Ukrainian leader also addressed the potential for artificial intelligence to play a role in battlefield considerations going forward and called for peace before that begins to happen in earnest.
Writing earlier this week for The Conversation, Amy McAuliffe, a former CIA official and now Visiting Distinguished Professor of the Practice at the University of Notre Dame, had warned that several different developments in the weapons used in the Russia-Ukraine war had demonstrated the dangerous potential of fully autonomous drones, and how such systems would likely lack any concerns or safeguards about civilian deaths that come into play when humans are at the controls of such decisions.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
