Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Tuesday that intelligence shows Russia is preparing a new massive attack on Ukraine, sounding the alarm from New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly — even as he sat down with US President Donald Trump to discuss ways of ending the war.
Intelligence points to a new Russian assault
Posting on Telegram about his meeting with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Zelensky said Ukraine was in constant communication with its allies on securing new anti-aircraft defences. "There's intelligence right now that Russia is preparing a new massive attack against Ukraine," he wrote.
The warning reflects a shift in Russian tactics. Rather than the large overnight barrages of the past, Moscow has in recent weeks attacked in near-constant waves throughout the day, increasingly with jet-powered drones that fly higher and faster and are far harder for Ukrainian air defences to intercept. Reuters reports the new drones are disrupting businesses, government and ordinary life on a much bigger scale than before.
Zelensky also pushed back on any talk of easing sanctions pressure on Moscow: there can be no discussion of relief, he said, "when Ukrainians live every day under the threat of missile and drone attacks."
Energy ceasefire — and why it may not hold
While in New York, Zelensky discussed with Trump a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy targets — an idea floated as both sides wage a deepening infrastructure war. The Ukrainian leader said he was ready for "any format" of an energy ceasefire, provided Russia halts its own attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure. He called the Tuesday meeting "positive and productive," and said US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would carry Kyiv's proposal to Moscow; Secretary of State Marco Rubio was due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York on Wednesday.
The Kremlin, however, gave little ground: on Wednesday it said the conditions for future peace talks with Ukraine were still not in place and that no high-level meetings were planned. Zelensky, for his part, urged Trump to organise a trilateral meeting with Putin "as quickly as possible" to end the war.
Putin "doesn't feel he has to stop"
Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal in New York, Zelensky offered a bleak assessment of Moscow's intentions. "The situation on the battlefield is not successful for Putin. He is not winning, it is true. And he is not losing, it is also true, because for him human losses are not to lose... but his society is losing people," he said. Of the Russian leader, he added: "He doesn't feel that he has to stop."
Kyiv is racing to prepare for what it expects will be another Russian winter campaign against its power grid. Zelensky used the Trump meeting to ask for more US Patriot air-defence missiles — a request that goes to the heart of whether Ukraine's cities can survive the coming months.
Conclusion
The message from New York is twofold: Ukraine is ready to de-escalate energy strikes if Russia reciprocates, but it is not banking on Moscow's goodwill. As Zelensky put it, the intelligence shows a new massive Russian attack is being prepared — and the Kremlin itself says the conditions for peace talks do not exist. For Kyiv's allies, the choice is between more air defences and sanctions pressure now, or another winter of blackouts and massed drone barrages later.
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