Deep freeze hits Ukraine as Trump says Putin agrees to halt power grid attacks

Russia is continuing to attack Ukrainian cities Picture: Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP

Ukraine is awaiting signs that Russia is abiding by a commitment US president Donald Trump said Moscow had made to temporarily halt attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, as Kyiv and other regions suffer their bitterest winter weather for years.

Mr Trump said Russian president Vladimir Putin had agreed to his request not to target the Ukrainian capital and other towns for one week, as the region experiences frigid temperatures that have brought widespread hardship to civilians.

The US leader did not say when the call with Mr Putin took place or when the moratorium would go into effect, and the White House did not immediately respond to a query seeking clarity about the scope and timing of any limited pause.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Kremlin that Mr Putin has committed to the move.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was sceptical about Mr Putin’s readiness for such a step as Russia’s all-out invasion approaches its four-year anniversary next month with no signs that Moscow is willing to reach a peace settlement despite a US-led push to end the fighting.

“I do not believe that Russia wants to end the war. There is a great deal of evidence to the contrary,” Mr Zelensky said on Thursday.

He said that Ukraine is ready to halt its attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, including oil refineries, if Moscow also stops its bombardment of the Ukrainian power grid and other energy assets.

While there was no official word on whether those conciliatory steps had been taken, the grinding war of attrition drags on.

The war is approaching the four-year mark (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia fired 111 drones and one ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight, injuring at least three people, the Ukrainian Air Force said. The Russian defence ministry, meanwhile, said that its air defences overnight shot down 18 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, as well as the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.

Kyiv, which recently has endured severe power shortages, is forecast to enter a brutally cold stretch starting on Friday that is expected to last into next week. Temperatures in some areas will drop to minus 30C.

Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat, light and running water over the course of the war, in a strategy that Ukrainian officials describe as “weaponising winter”.