Trump’s announcement came as Ukraine prepared for severe winter weather and as the war’s air campaign continued to pressure the country’s power grid. The U.S. president said the pause, if it holds, was meant to give residents in and around the capital a temporary break while temperatures plunge.
Kyiv is forecast to enter a brutally cold stretch starting Friday and expected to last into next week, with temperatures in some areas dropping to minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), the State Emergency Service warned. Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s critical infrastructure as part of a wider effort that Ukrainian officials say is designed to make civilian life harder through the cold season—leaving people without heat as equipment and supplies are strained.
During Thursday’s remarks, Trump said he personally asked Putin not to fire on Kyiv and on “the cities and towns for a week during this … extraordinary cold,” according to what he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. Trump said Putin agreed to the request, adding that “A lot of people said, ‘Don’t waste the call. You’re not going to get that.’” and that he was “very happy” when Putin did it.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Kremlin that Putin had agreed to the pause. When Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked earlier Thursday whether a mutual halt on strikes on energy facilities was being discussed between Russia and Ukraine, he refused to comment on the issue.
Ukrainian leaders were meanwhile already signaling doubts about whether any pause could take hold. Zelenskyy, in a statement late Wednesday, warned that Moscow was planning another large-scale barrage even as he said peace talks were expected to continue at the weekend. He later thanked Trump for his effort and welcomed the “possibility” of a pause in Russian military action on Kyiv and beyond, saying in a social media post that “Power supply is a foundation of life.”
Ahead of the weekend diplomacy, reporting from the battlefield continued to underscore the fragility of any potential restraint. Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone attack killed three people overnight in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and caused a major blaze in an apartment building. They also said firefighters worked through the night in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where two people were injured, officials said.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence reports indicate Russia was assembling forces for a major aerial attack. He pointed to the pattern of previous large strikes—at times involving more than 800 drones along with cruise and ballistic missiles—that have targeted Ukraine’s power grid, and said the ongoing attacks discredit the peace talks. “Every single Russian strike does,” Zelenskyy said late Wednesday.
Ukraine has also been addressing the role of satellite connectivity in the war. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Thursday that Ukrainian forces are working with SpaceX to address the reported use of Starlink by Russian attack drones. He said his team contacted the American aerospace company and “proposed ways to resolve the issue,” thanking Elon Musk and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell for a “swift response and the start of work on resolving the situation.”
In European diplomacy, the push for a settlement faced further pressure on Russia to make concessions. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels that Russia was increasing its attacks on Ukraine because it could not make moves on the battlefield, and she called for more pressure on Moscow. She also said Europe, which sees its own security at stake in Ukraine, must be fully involved in talks to end the war.
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were described as poised to resume on Sunday, even as doubts persisted about Moscow’s commitment. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said Thursday that “a lot of progress” was made in recent three-way talks and that he was optimistic more headway could be made when the parties meet again in the coming days. “I think the people of Ukraine are now hopeful and expecting that we are going to deliver a peace deal sometime soon,” Witkoff said.