There were no attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, after U.S. President Donald Trump revealed he’d made a personal request to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to hold back the missiles as severely cold weather approaches.
Temperatures in Ukraine are forecast to plunge as low as -28c (-18f) in the coming days, news that came as U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he’d spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask for a partial ceasefire. Speaking on Thursday night, President Trump said: “because of the cold, extreme cold, they have the same that we do, I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week.”
He continued: “They say they’ve never experienced cold like that. And I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that. And I have to tell you that was very nice, a lot of people said ‘don’t waste the call you’re not going to get that’, and he did it. And we’re very happy that they did it. Because on top of everything else what they don’t need is missiles coming into their towns and cities.
“Ukraine almost didn’t believe it, but they were very happy about it because they are struggling badly”.
Residents visit emergency tents in the Troieshchyna district to warm themselves and receive hot meal in Kyiv, Ukraine on 30 January 2026. (Photo by Daniel Yovkov / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)
Both Russia and Ukraine was initially circumspect on these remarks, and neither confirmed nor denied whether a ceasefire had been definitely discussed or accepted. Yet by mid-morning Friday there were indications that something was going on, with Kyiv and Moscow both speaking out.
President Zelensky first praised Trump’s remarks, calling them an “important statement by President Trump about the possibility of providing security for Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during this extreme winter period”, and adding: “We value the efforts of our partners to help us protect lives. Thank you, President Trump!”. On Friday, he issued an update to state that while Russia had attempted to attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure on Thursday, there had been “no strikes on energy facilities last night”.
The overnight air raids were lighter than in previous days, with around 100 drones and one ballistic missile launched against Ukraine. President Zelensky said: “We are now observing a shift by the Russian army toward strikes on logistics. Drone attacks on ordinary residential areas in cities are also continuing.”
Kyiv remains cautious on welcoming the partial ceasefire should it be confirmed real, however, with Ukraine state media promulgating reports emphasising that previous years of Russian talk of temporary ceasefires has either failed to materialise or been quickly broken, and that Moscow could simply be using a pause to gather forces for a major later strike.
KYIV, UKRAINE – JANUARY 13: A rescuer stands next to a large portable generator on January 13, 2026 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Due to Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, a full blackout has been declared in Kyiv. In several districts facing the most severe power supply disruptions, high-capacity generators have begun to be installed. (Photo by Andriy Zhyhaylo/Oboz.ua/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
While much discussion is focussed on Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Ukraine also frequently strikes Russian energy infrastructure. Today, Kyiv said they would refrain from such strikes if it was clear Russia wasn’t attacking theirs.
Russia itself had initially refused to comment on any ceasefire, but President Putin’s personal spokesman Dmitry Peskov did finally speak out on Friday morning. Although his comments were vague and lacked specifics, he nevertheless confirmed that “President Trump made a personal request to Putin to refrain from striking Kiev for a week, until February first, in order to foster favourable conditions for negotiations”.
When asked if President Putin had actually agreed to Trump’s energy ceasefire, Peskov added “Yes, of course, it was a personal request from Trump” before refusing to answer further questions.
Of the purported ceasefire, much remains unclear. While President Trump announced on Thursday it was to last for a week, Moscow said it was to expire on Sunday. If it had indeed started the Sunday before after the trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates, when Russian, Ukrainian, and American delegates talked face-to-face in the same room, then it certainly hasn’t been honoured for the rest of the week until now. Russian strikes hit destroyed a Ukrainian power station in Odesa on Tuesday, it was claimed.
Huge numbers of Ukrainians have been without power and heat — hot water and heat being provided municipally in many large Soviet-era apartment blocks — in recent weeks as Russian strikes hammered cities. On January 20th “half of Kyiv” was without heating while temperatures plummeted to -10c (14f), equivalent to one million people.
This morning, President Zelensky said extra resources were being directed to Kyiv as swathes of the city remain cold, with “378 high-rise residential buildings without heating” today.
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