The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated on his social network on Thursday that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, will accept not to attack Kiev for a week due to the extreme cold. Next week, a storm is expected to lower temperatures to -23 degrees, a circumstance that could be lethal for millions of Ukrainians, whose energy situation is precarious at best due to the repeated attacks on infrastructure by Russia.
"I personally asked President Putin not to attack Kiev or other cities for a week, and he agreed to do so," said Trump during a Cabinet meeting, referring to the "extraordinarily low temperatures" in the region. Hours earlier, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, had stated that such temporary ceasefire proposals were "unacceptable" to the Kremlin
"He was very kind. Many people told me, 'Don't waste your time on the call, you won't get that.' And he did," added Trump. If this ceasefire were to take effect, it would be the first of its kind to be fulfilled since the invasion began almost four years ago.
Attacks on energy infrastructure have been a constant during the four winters of the war but have now become more severe, as Russia has allocated more resources to attacking civilians and Ukraine has more difficulty finding reserves of anti-aircraft missiles in the arsenals of its allies. This is a war crime.