US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to not fire on Kyiv for a week due to cold weather.
"I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that," Trump said at a Cabinet meeting, citing "extraordinary cold" in the region.
"It was very nice. A lot of people said, 'Don't waste the call, you're not going to get that.' And he did it," Trump added.
Trump's Envoy, Steve Witkoff, said that security and prosperity agreements to end the war in Ukraine are largely complete and that talks will resume in about a week, expressing that he "thinks we made a lot of progress."
Zelensky ignores invitations to Moscow
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, there have been repeated invitations for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to come to Moscow for negotiations, all of which have been ignored.
Russia refuses to consider another location for negotiations, with Peskov calling discussions about alternatives "inappropriate."
Ukraine's Zelensky expects implementation of agreement not to fire on Kyiv
Zelensky said on Thursday he expected the implementation of an agreement by Russia not to fire on Kyiv and other cities for a week because of winter weather, as announced by Trump.
Zelensky said the days to come would show whether Moscow would abide by such an agreement.
"Our teams discussed this in the United Arab Emirates. We expect the agreements to be implemented," Zelensky wrote in English on the X/Twitter social media platform. "De-escalation steps contribute to real progress toward ending the war."
Speaking immediately afterwards in his nightly video address, Zelensky expressed his thanks to Washington for the initiative, which he described as halting Russian strikes on energy targets.
"Thanks to the American side for their efforts in ensuring a stop to strikes on energy (targets) at this time and let's hope that America succeeds in ensuring this," he said.
"We shall see what the real situation is with our energy facilities and cities in the days and nights to come."