KYIV — Ukrainians woke to another frigid Friday with the possibility that, at least for now, there could be a halt in Russia’s punishing attacks on its energy sector that have plunged the much of the country into cold and darkness, after a call by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he was waiting to see if Russia would observe the one-week ceasefire on Ukraine’s electrical grid proposed by Trump, in which case Ukrainian forces would halt their attacks on Russia’s energy system.
In televised comments made during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump said that he “personally asked” Russian President Vladimir Putin “not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week and he agreed to do that,” adding that “it was very nice.”
Shortly after, writing on X, Zelensky thanked Trump for the initiative which he said he expected “to be implemented.”
Russian officials have not publicly responded to the call for a ceasefire. However, Ukraine’s Air Force said in a social media post that Moscow’s forces launched 111 strike drones and one ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight into Friday. At least 25 of the drones made it through the defenses but no details were given on what was struck.
In comments released on Friday, Zelensky was cautious, saying he saw Trump’s proposal “as an opportunity rather than an agreement.”
“Whether it will work or not, and what exactly will work, I cannot say at this point,” he said in a briefing with journalists Thursday evening in Kyiv released the next day. “There is no ceasefire. There is no official agreement on a ceasefire, as is typically reached during negotiations.”
Zelensky said that “if Russia heard the signal from the American side in the same way we did,” then Ukraine would “likely see some results and be able to assess them.” He added that if Russia refrained from targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, “generation facilities or any other energy assets,” then Ukrainian forces would “not strike theirs.”
A ceasefire on strikes against energy infrastructure would come at a crucial moment in the four-year-old conflict. Russian missiles and drones have wreaked substantial damage on Ukrainian power plants and electrical substations, paralyzing the energy network and leaving millions without heat and power during one of the worst winters in years.
Temperatures in Kyiv and the rest of the country have hovered consistently well below freezing the last weeks, with another cold snap — with lows of -9 Fahrenheit (-23 Celsius) — predicted in the coming week.
“It’s extraordinary,” Trump said during his Cabinet meeting. “It’s not like cold, it’s extraordinary cold.”
The post Ukraine wakes to possible pause in Russian energy strikes after Trump call appeared first on Washington Post.
