Trump pushes Zelensky to put Ukraine power plants under US control

Suggestion was part of phone call in which Zelensky accepted Russia’s offer for a mutual pause in attacks on energy targets for 30 days

Reading Time:3 minutes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to US President Donald Trump on a phone call. Photo: @ZelenskyyUa via X via Reuters

Published: 7:33pm, 19 Mar 2025Updated: 3:36pm, 20 Mar 2025

US President Donald Trump has urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to hand over control of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to American companies to shield the country from further Russian attacks.

During a phone call on Wednesday, in which Zelensky accepted Russia’s offer for a mutual pause in attacks on energy targets for 30 days, Trump suggested that a US takeover of Ukraine’s nuclear and electrical facilities could serve as a long-term deterrent against attacks, according to a readout from the State Department.

Trump “said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise”, it said. “American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure.”

The proposal, which followed the limited ceasefire that Trump had brokered in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier, appeared to supersede an earlier effort by the US leader to strike a deal that would allocate revenues earned from Ukrainian government-owned natural resource assets into a reconstruction fund that would be partly owned by the US government.

Employees work at a thermal power plant damaged by multiple Russian missile strikes. Photo: Reuters

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce defended the proposal during a press briefing Wednesday, saying Trump’s suggestion would provide Ukraine with “a way of guaranteeing their protection”.