The confirmation came a day after US President Donald Trump said that Putin had agreed to stop strikes on Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities for a week.
“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 spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to Reuters.
When asked if Putin had agreed, Peskov said, “Yes of course, there was a personal request from President Trump.”
It was not immediately clear whether Putin had agreed only to halt strikes on Kyiv or if the ceasefire extended to other major cities as Trump had claimed.
Moreover, Peskov confirmed the ceasefire only until February 1 whereas Trump said it would last for a week — until February 5.
If Russia adheres to the ceasefire, it would be the first time a Trump-mediated truce holds. So far, Putin has rejected all previous ceasefire proposals and announcements made by Trump. The success of this ceasefire’s announcement would indicate that US-mediated peace efforts have made meaningful progress.
The confirmation comes as American, Ukrainian, and Russian negotiators have begun trilateral talks. Last week, they met in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the first such discussions. In the coming days, Ukrainian and Russian officials are expected to meet again — possibly in a similar format.
These talks —and the subsequent ceasefire announced by Trump and confirmed by the Kremlin— come at a time when near-daily Russian strikes have battered Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, plunging tens of thousands of homes in cities like Kyiv into darkness and leaving them without heating in harsh winter conditions.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been accused of weaponising winter by attacking energy infrastructure and civilian settlements, including apartment buildings, to break morale and exert pressure for a deal on its own terms.
