Ukraine will reciprocate if Russia halts attacks on energy sectors: Zelensky | World News

It comes just hours after the Kremlin directly invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Moscow for peace talks on Thursday.

The Ukrainian President encouraged Russian President Putin to visit Kiev, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday, adding that Ukraine was ready to respond if Russia stopped attacking the energy infrastructure that deprived Kiev of the cold. He added that there is no official ceasefire between the two countries.

The developments come after US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to pause attacks on Kiev for a week due to severe cold.

Temperatures in the Ukrainian capital are expected to drop to -26°C on Sunday as the country battles the worst cold weather.

According to Reuters, Zelenskiy said that the United States proposed reducing the conflict at the tripartite peace talks held in Abu Dhabi last weekend. He noted that the follow-up tour, planned for Sunday in the UAE, may change in date or location amid rising US-Iran tensions.

“The Americans want both sides to refrain from long-range strikes to give space for diplomacy,” Zelenskiy told reporters in Kiev on Friday. he said. “This is a US initiative led by the President; we see this as an opportunity, not a done deal.”

Ukraine’s Air Force reported Friday that Russia fired a ballistic missile and 111 unmanned aerial vehicles targeting various areas throughout the night. Air strikes were seen in frontline areas, but no attacks on energy infrastructure were recorded, according to Reuters.

If the energy sector ceasefire is enacted, it will come at a crucial time, weeks before the fourth anniversary of the war. Russian forces continue to advance slowly in eastern Donetsk, while also launching almost daily drone attacks on remote Ukrainian cities.

Since last autumn, Moscow has stepped up its attacks on power grids, leaving Kiev in darkness and bitter cold during one of the harshest winters in a decade.

While US-mediated peace talks continue, efforts to end the war have not yielded any concrete results so far. Zelenskiy noted that important territorial disputes between Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, are still unresolved.

President Donald Trump’s key envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who attended the previous round, will skip the upcoming Abu Dhabi talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday. Zelenskiy emphasized that the next session should have the same team to follow the progress of the previous discussions.