US President Donald Trump appeared to confirm rumors that Moscow has temporarily halted attacks on Kyiv and Ukrainian energy infrastructure at a White House cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Freezing temperatures and Russia’s relentless bombardment of Ukraine’s energy sector have for weeks run the risk of tipping the situation for thousands of civilians across Ukraine into a humanitarian catastrophe. Kyiv, in particular, has been severely impacted by blackouts.
“They’ve never experienced cold like that. And I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week. And he agreed to do that, and I have to tell you, it was very nice,” Trump told a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
The first hint that Russia may have temporarily halted strikes on these targets came from pro-Kremlin war blogger Vladimir Romanov, who claimed that Russia had halted strikes until Feb. 3 early on Thursday morning.
The text of the Russian order, Romanov alleged, reads: “Exclude strikes on targets within Kyiv and the Kyiv region, and across all of Ukraine on energy infrastructure facilities – including power substations, thermal power plants, hydroelectric stations, gas storage facilities, oil depots, and fuel storage from Jan. 28, 2026, until further instructions.”
Shortly afterwards, Ukrainian war bloggers said that a parallel Ukrainian order not to target Russian energy infrastructure had also been given.
Moscow has yet to comment on these claims. However, President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Trump for his efforts in a Telegram post a few hours after his comments.
“I thank the American side for its efforts to stop the attacks on the energy sector at this time, and we hope that America will be able to ensure this. There is a statement today from the President of the United States. The situation now at night and these days, the real situation at our energy facilities, in our cities will show this,” Zelensky said.
Later, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Berlin welcomed “efforts in favour of a truce,” but condemned “the systematic and brutal destruction of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure by Russian attacks” – which he said was “still ongoing,” as per AFP.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who recently visited Moscow at Putin’s request, was also present.
“We have a security protocol agreement that’s largely finished. A prosperity agreement is largely finished,” he told the cabinet meeting – apparently referring to a US-backed “Prosperity Plan” for postwar investment which loomed large at US-Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi at the weekend.
European diplomats described those trilateral talks to Kyiv Post as the “most serious engagement” between Russia and Ukraine since the full-scale invasion. Ukraine confirmed even prior to Abu Dhabi that it had agreed a package of postwar security guarantees with the US.
Talks between US, Russian, and Ukrainian delegations are expected to continue in about a week, Witkoff added.
However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Witkoff will not attend them.
“[Russia and Ukraine] are going to follow up talks again this week. In that regard, bilateral. There might be a US presence, but it won’t be Steve and Jared,” he told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.