US President Donald Trump has claimed that Russia will not attack targets in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities “for a week.” Trump said that the decision came after he “personally asked” Russian President Vladimir Putin to suspend the strikes.
“Because of the extreme cold…I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kiev and the cities and towns for a week,” Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting on Thursday. Putin “agreed to do that,” Trump continued, adding that “we’re very happy” with the decision.
Earlier on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on rumors that Moscow and Kiev had reached a co-called ‘energy ceasefire’. Ukrainian MP Aleksey Goncharenko claimed that while “there is an agreement on an energy truce,” there “is no date for the start of this truce.”
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly called for an energy ceasefire, during which both sides would cease targeting each others’ power plants and electrical grid. These calls intensified this week, after repeated Russian strikes on power infrastructure left nearly a million households in the dark in Kiev on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian Energy Minister Denis Shmigal.
Russia maintains that it targets only those facilities used by the Ukrainian military and military industrial complex, and that its attacks are a direct response to Kiev’s deep strikes on Russian civilians and critical infrastructure.
Temperatures in the Ukrainian capital are predicted to dip to -13 Celsius (8 F) this weekend.
Russia agreed to an energy ceasefire last March, following talks with Trump’s administration. However, Ukrainian forces broke the ceasefire within days, launching attacks on Russian oil refineries and gas infrastructure. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow chose not to retaliate in kind, preferring to honor the ceasefire.
After both Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron called for another truce last month, Peskov said that Russia seeks a permanent peace, rather than another temporary pause. “We are working on peace, not on a ceasefire,” he said. “A stable, guaranteed, long-term peace, achieved through the signing of appropriate documents, is an absolute priority.”
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