U.S. President Donald Trump asked Russia to pause strikes on Ukraine's capital Kyiv until Feb. 1, the Kremlin said Friday, coming as officials from the two warring countries prepare for a second round of trilateral talks with American delegates in Abu Dhabi scheduled for this weekend.
"I can say that President Trump did indeed make a personal request to President Putin to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week, until Feb. 1, as a way to create more hospitable conditions for negotiations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Asked to clarify whether Putin agreed to the request, Peskov said, "Yes, of course."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists on Friday that his military would halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure if Russia did the same.
Trump had said at a White House cabinet meeting the day before that he asked the Russian leader to "not fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week" due to the "extreme cold." He did not say when he made the request.
Peskov did not mention weather conditions in his statement to reporters on Friday, framing the week-long pause in strikes as a gesture of goodwill amid peace talks. He also did not say whether only Kyiv would be spared from attacks during the brief ceasefire.
Deep cold is forecast to begin across much of Eastern Europe this weekend, including in Ukraine, where it will stick around at least until next Wednesday. Temperatures in Kyiv are expected to plunge to as low as minus 26 degrees Celsius (minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday.
Russian airstrikes have battered Ukraine's energy grid in recent weeks, leaving thousands of people in Kyiv without heating.
This week, the city has not reported any unusually large drone or missile attacks. The last large-scale Russian strike on Kyiv was during the night of Jan. 23-24.
AFP contributed reporting.
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