Trump claims Putin agreed to halt Ukraine energy strikes amid extreme cold

Donald Trump has claimed Vladimir Putin agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for one week after he issued a personal appeal to the Russian leader due to the extreme cold in Ukraine.The short-term ceasefire, which has not been confirmed by either Ukraine or Russia, was announced during a cabinet meeting of Trump’s top advisers at the White House on Thursday.“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week and he agreed to do that,” Trump said during the meeting. “I have to tell you it was very nice.”The request was made during a phone call between the two leaders that had not been previously reported. Trump did not give a start or end date for the alleged ceasefire.Russian and Ukrainian social media channels close to the military had speculated about a short ceasefire before Trump’s announcement, but the reports had not been confirmed. On Thursday morning the Kremlin declined to discuss whether an energy ceasefire had been negotiated.Trump also claimed he had informed Ukrainian officials about the ceasefire. “Ukraine … almost didn’t believe it but they were very happy about it,” Trump said.Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Thursday he expected the implementation of an agreement by Russia not to fire on Kyiv and other cities for a week because of winter weather, as announced by Trump.“Our teams discussed this in the United Arab Emirates. We expect the agreements to be implemented,” Zelenskyy wrote on the social media platform X. “De-escalation steps contribute to real progress toward ending the war.”Two recent Russian missile and drone strikes left more than 1 million people in Kyiv without power and more than 6,000 buildings without heating, according to Reuters. The country is enduring a brutally cold winter and temperatures are expected to drop to -20C (-4F) in the coming weeks.Hours earlier, Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, had rejected assertions by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, that the only issue left to resolve between Kyiv and Moscow to end the war concerned control over Ukrainian territory in the Donbas region.“The territorial issue is the most important issue but many other issues remain on the agenda,” Ushakov said. Asked about security guarantees the west had pledged to Ukraine in the event of a deal, Ushakov said: “No one agreed on this.”Ukraine and Russia are expected to continue talks in Abu Dhabi this weekend that will focus specifically on military contacts and efforts at monitoring a potential ceasefire. Trilateral talks including US officials last week were the first time the three sides had sat down to negotiations since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.Ushakov was guarded when asked whether the talks were at an advanced stage. “We held the first round of negotiations within the framework of the security working groups. That’s where we are,” he said.Russia launches ‘brutal’ attack on Ukraine’s two largest cities – videoOn Thursday evening, Zelenskyy said he had intelligence that Russia was preparing for a new strike against Ukraine. “Our intelligence has provided information on this issue and it is necessary that the US, Europe and all our partners understand how this discredits the diplomatic discussions,” he wrote.Earlier, he had warned of Russia “using the negotiating process with the cynical, harsh goal of delaying new measures of pressuring Russia [to make peace] that could work”.Earlier this week, a Russian drone strike on a Ukrainian passenger train killed five people onboard, according to Ukrainian prosecutors. One drone struck a carriage of the train, which was carrying 155 passengers, and two more drones detonated alongsideit. Zelenskyy called the attack an act of terrorism.