Trump claims Putin agreed to pause Kyiv attacks amid peace talks
Aamer Madhani And Susie Blancan
Updated ,first published
Kyiv: US President Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed not to target Ukraine’s capital and other towns, where cold temperatures are experienced in the region, for a week.
There has been no confirmation yet from the Kremlin that Putin has agreed to such a break.
Russia is striking Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, hoping to break the population’s resistance to war and enable many across the country to endure the cold winter.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kiev, cities and towns for a week during this extraordinary cold,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday (Washington time), adding that Putin “agreed to that.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked early Thursday whether Russia and Ukraine had discussed a mutual halt to attacks on energy facilities, and Peskov declined to comment on the matter.
Reports of a possible partial ceasefire emerged early Thursday via bloggers close to the Russian military. Telegram reported.
“We are receiving reports that the Russian Armed Forces have banned the use of fire on all infrastructure facilities throughout Ukraine,” said prominent Russian blogger Vladimir Romanov. He added that a similar ban applies to “all facilities in Kiev and the Kiev region.”
Ukrainian social media channels affiliated with the military also reported that orders were given not to attack Russia’s energy infrastructure facilities. Telegram reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned late Wednesday that Moscow was planning another large-scale dam, despite plans for U.S.-brokered peace talks to be held this weekend.
Trump said he was pleased Putin agreed to the break. Kiev, which has been struggling with serious power outages this winter, is expected to enter an extremely cold period starting Friday and expected to last until next week.
The State Emergency Service warned that temperatures would drop to minus 30 degrees in some areas.
“A lot of people said, ‘Don’t waste the call. You’re not going to get this,'” Trump said of his request to Putin. “And he did it. And we’re so happy they did it.”
Zelensky thanked Trump for his efforts and welcomed the “possibility” of a pause in Russia’s military campaign against Kiev and beyond. “Power supply is the basis of life,” he said in his social media post.
“We expect the agreements to be implemented. De-escalation steps contribute to real progress towards ending the war.”
Trump did not say when the meeting with Putin took place or when the ceasefire would go into effect. The White House did not immediately respond to a question seeking clarity about the scope and timing of the limited pause in the nearly four-year war.
Russia has sought to deny heating and running water to Ukrainian civilians throughout the war, hoping to break down popular resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion that began in February 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “armed winter”.
Last year was the deadliest year for civilians in Ukraine since 2022 as Russia intensified air strikes behind the front lines, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country. It was stated that 2514 civilians died and 12,142 people were injured in Ukraine during the war. This number increased by 31 percent compared to 2024.
A Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhya region killed three people overnight and caused a massive fire in an apartment building, officials said Thursday. Firefighters also worked through the night to extinguish fires in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where two people were injured, officials said.
Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence reports showed Russia was gathering forces for a major air strike. Previous major attacks, sometimes involving more than 800 drones as well as cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, have targeted the Ukrainian power grid.
Zelensky said the ongoing attacks discredited the peace talks. “Every Russian attack does this,” he said late Wednesday.
Russia’s daily bombing of civilian areas behind the nearly 1,000-kilometer front line has continued despite international condemnation and efforts to end the conflict.
Ukraine is working with SpaceX to address reports that its Starlink satellite internet service is being used by Russian attack drones, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday.
He said his team contacted the American aerospace company run by Elon Musk and “suggested ways to solve the problem.”
Fedorov thanked Musk and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell for their “quick response and starting work to resolve the situation.”
According to Fedorov, Russia launched more than 6,000 drones into Ukraine last month alone.
Negotiations between the two sides are set to restart on Sunday amid doubts about Moscow’s commitment to a solution.
The European Union’s top diplomat accused Russia on Thursday (Brussels time) of not taking the talks seriously and called for more pressure to be put on Moscow to make concessions.
Kaja Kallas said the following about Russia at the meeting of EU foreign ministers: “We see that they have increased their attacks against Ukraine because they cannot make moves on the battlefield. Therefore, they are attacking civilians.”
He emphasized that Europe, which considers its future security to be at risk in Ukraine, should fully participate in talks to end the war. Pressure for a solution over the past year has been led by the Trump administration, and European leaders fear their concerns will go unheeded.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday that “a lot of progress” had been made in recent trilateral talks and expressed optimism that more progress could be made when the parties meet again in the coming days.
“I think the Ukrainian people are now hopeful and expect that we will sign a peace agreement soon,” Witkoff added.
According to an international think tank report published this week, the number of soldiers killed, injured or missing on both sides during the war could reach 2 million by the spring, while Russia is fighting against World War II.
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