Hundreds of residential buildings across Kyiv remain without heating as winter deepens and pressure mounts on Ukraine\u2019s battered energy system. Against this backdrop, the White House has pointed to a limited diplomatic opening focused on humanitarian considerations, even as hostilities continue and uncertainty surrounds implementation.<\/p>\n
During a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he had directly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to refrain from firing on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities for one week because of what he described as extraordinary, record-setting cold. Trump stated that Putin had agreed to this temporary pause, framing it as a response to the severe winter conditions rather than a broader ceasefire. The remarks came as Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure, leaving large parts of the capital without heat and electricity. The Kremlin has not confirmed Trump\u2019s account, and earlier in the day its spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, declined to comment when asked whether Moscow and Kyiv were discussing a mutual halt on strikes against energy facilities. The humanitarian stakes are rising as temperatures continue to fall and damage to the power grid accumulates.<\/p>\n
The developments follow a first round of trilateral talks involving Ukrainian, Russian, and American officials held last weekend in the United Arab Emirates, with another meeting expected on Sunday, according to officials familiar with the discussions. Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly warned that Russia is planning another large-scale strike despite the prospect of further talks. In recent days, he has said that more than half of Kyiv\u2019s homes were left without heating and that most of the city lost electricity after earlier attacks on energy facilities. As Kyiv prepares for another bout of extreme cold, with temperatures forecast to plunge to minus 30 degrees Celsius according to Ukraine\u2019s State Emergency Service, Zelenskyy has expressed appreciation for US diplomatic efforts, noting in a verified post on X that protecting power supply is essential to saving lives and that de-escalation steps could contribute to progress toward ending the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv\u2019s air force reported that Russia attacked overnight with an Iskander-M ballistic missile and more than 100 strike drones, underscoring the fragile and uncertain nature of any pause in fighting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hundreds of residential buildings across Kyiv remain without heating as winter deepens and pressure mounts on Ukraine\u2019s battered energy system\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":1729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[566,74,291],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-european-union","tag-dmitry-peskov","tag-donald-trump","tag-vladimir-putin"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1730,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions\/1730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}