Moscow has agreed to a request from US President Donald Trump to pause strikes on Kyiv for a week, until February 1, the Kremlin said on Friday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that Russia had accepted what he described as a “personal request” from Trump to halt attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
"I can say that President Trump did indeed make a personal request to President Putin to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week until February 1 in order to create favourable conditions for negotiations," Peskov said, as cited by AFP.
Trump said he appealed because of the “extreme cold” in Ukraine, disclosing it during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday. In contrast, the Kremlin said the move was intended to facilitate negotiations.
"I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week," Trump said, adding that it was "because of the cold, extreme cold."
The Kremlin did not refer to freezing temperatures when describing the appeal, instead presenting it as a move to support negotiations, as the United States presses for an end to the nearly four-year war between the two neighbours.
Russia’s sustained attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have left thousands of residents in Kyiv without heating during an unusually harsh winter.
Ukraine’s weather agency has warned that the coldest conditions are expected after February 1, with temperatures in Kyiv forecast to fall as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius in the coming days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed Trump’s announcement, saying that Ukraine would reciprocate any restraint.
“If Russia does not strike our energy infrastructure generation facilities or any other energy assets, we will not strike theirs,” Zelenskyy said on Friday, as cited by AFP.
Despite Trump’s claim, Ukrainian air force officials said Russian forces launched dozens of drones and one missile at Ukraine overnight.
The Ukrainian police also said they received more than 2,000 bomb threats within a few hours on Friday.
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