Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin has agreed to pause attacks on Kyiv for one week, as Ukraine faces a brutal winter and renewed diplomatic efforts to ease the nearly four-year war.
WEBDESK – Act Global Media – January 30, 2026
US President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to pause attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, for one week, as freezing temperatures grip the country and Russian strikes continue to batter energy infrastructure.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting in Washington on Thursday, Trump said he personally asked Putin to refrain from firing on Kyiv and other towns during the cold snap. “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,” Trump said. “And he agreed to do that.”
The Kremlin has not publicly confirmed the agreement, and it was unclear when the conversation between the two leaders took place.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expected any commitments to be honored, noting that de-escalation measures had been discussed during contacts between Ukrainian and Russian representatives in the United Arab Emirates. “De-escalation steps contribute to real progress toward ending the war,” he said.
The announcement comes as Ukrainians face one of the harshest winters since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly four years ago. Russian forces have intensified attacks on electricity and heating networks in recent months, leaving millions with rolling blackouts and limited access to heat. Aid groups warn that prolonged outages during subzero temperatures raise the risk of hypothermia, particularly for children and the elderly.
Diplomatic activity has picked up in recent weeks. Delegations from Ukraine, Russia, and the United States held their first known trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi last week, and further discussions are expected over the weekend. Despite the momentum, major differences remain, especially over territorial control in any eventual settlement.
Meanwhile, fighting has continued elsewhere. Ukrainian regional authorities said Russian strikes killed six people on Thursday across central and southern regions. In Zaporizhzhia, shelling killed a 62-year-old man and two women aged 26 and 50, emergency services said. In neighboring Kherson, two civilians were killed in bombardments, according to regional officials. An additional strike on Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown, killed an elderly woman, local authorities reported.
Russia has carried out near-nightly drone and missile attacks across Ukraine, underscoring the fragility of any pause and the urgency of translating diplomatic signals into verifiable, sustained relief on the ground.
