Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says neither Russia nor Ukraine has conducted strikes on energy targets following an agreement initiated by the United States for Russia to refrain from such attacks.
“In all our regions, there were indeed no strikes on energy facilities from Thursday night to Friday,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
“Ukraine is ready in reciprocal terms to refrain from strikes and today we did not strike at Russian energy facilities.”
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He said Russia was engaged in a “reorientation” of its military activity by attacking logistics such as rail junctions.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had accepted US President Donald Trump’s request to stop bombarding Kyiv to create “favourable conditions” for peace talks.
In recent weeks, Russian strikes on energy infrastructure in Kyiv have left hundreds of thousands of people without heating for days on end at times as temperatures have dipped below minus 15C.
“President Trump did indeed make a personal request to President Putin to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week until February 1 in order to create favourable conditions for negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, confirming that Mr Putin had agreed.
Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to reciprocate, halting its attacks on Russian refinery infrastructure, saying this was “an opportunity rather than an agreement”.
Kyiv residents doubted the short energy truce would lead to any lasting improvement, saying they had no choice but to endure a winter that has become the darkest and coldest of the nearly four-year war.
“I trust neither Putin nor Trump, so I think that even if he (Putin) complies now, he will stockpile missiles and will still keep firing,” a Kyiv pensioner said.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had launched a ballistic missile and 111 drones in its latest overnight attacks on Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky said the missile damaged warehouses of a US company in the northeastern Kharkiv region, without identifying the firm.
Ukraine’s military said it hit several Russian logistics facilities in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast of the country.
A report from Russia’s Defence Ministry showed that the number of Ukrainian drones shot down overnight fell to 18 last night, compared with 168 downed during the New Year night.
Mr Zelensky said the opportunity to de-escalate the conflict via a suspension of air strikes on energy installations was proposed by the US at the Abu Dhabi talks last weekend.
He added that the date or location for a follow-up round of talks, currently expected this Sunday again in the United Arab Emirates, could change.
Mr Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, will travel to Miami on Saturday for meetings with members of Trump’s administration, two sources with knowledge of the visit told Reuters.
