Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy and Merz welcome Trump truce claim and condemn Russia attacks
Ukrainian president and German chancellor praise US efforts after Trump claims Putin agreed to pause, as six killed in latest Russian strikes. What we know on day 1,437
German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have welcomed “efforts in favour of a truce”, Berlin said, after Donald Trump claimed Vladimir Putin had agreed to a week-long halt on attacks on Ukraine’s power grid after Moscow’s strikes left millions without heating during an “extreme” cold snap. Merz at the same time stressed that “the systematic and brutal destruction of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure by Russian attacks” was “still ongoing”, which he condemned “in the strongest terms”, his spokesperson said on Thursday. Zelenskyy said he was counting on the US to help secure the claimed week-long pause in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy network. The Ukrainian president thanked Trump and said he expected the agreement to be implemented. “We hope the United States can make this happen.” Ukraine’s state weather agency on Thursday forecast a drastic dip in temperatures to as low as minus 30C in coming days as authorities race to restore power services.
Donald Trump claimed Vladimir Putin agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for one week after he issued a personal appeal to the Russian leader, Andrew Roth reports. Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not immediately confirm the ceasefire was in place but said that the US president had made an “important statement … about the possibility of providing security for Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during this extreme winter period”. The short-term ceasefire, which has not been confirmed by Russia, was first announced during a cabinet meeting of Trump’s top advisers at the White House on Thursday. “I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week and he agreed to do that,” Trump said at the meeting.
Russian attacks killed six people in central and southern Ukraine on Thursday, regional authorities and emergency services said. In the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian shelling killed a 62-year-old man and women aged 26 and 50, emergency services said, as well as causing a major blaze in an apartment building. Firefighters also battled fires in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where two people were injured. In the Kherson region, a Russian bombardment killed a 46-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. A Russian attack on the central city of Kryvyi Rig killed one elderly woman, the head of the city’s administration said.
The UN nuclear watchdog’s board of governors is to meet on Friday to discuss nuclear safety in Ukraine, with several countries expressing “growing concern” over volatile conditions at Ukrainian power plants amid fears of a potential nuclear disaster. Following a series of attacks 13 countries led by the Netherlands requested the meeting. “The latest attacks have caused significant additional damage to energy infrastructure in Ukraine which is deemed essential for the safe operation of nuclear power plants,” the International Atomic Energy Agency members said in a letter dated 21 January. Last week Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power.
Ukraine is working with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to stop Russia from guiding drones using the firm’s Starlink internet system, according to the Ukrainian defence minister, after Kyiv said it had found Starlinks on long-range drones used in Russian attacks. “We are grateful to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and personally to Elon Musk for the quick response and the start of work on resolving the situation,” Mykhailo Fedorov said on Telegram on Thursday. SpaceX did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
The European Union has blacklisted Russia for risk of money laundering, the EU foreign policy chief has said. “This will slow down and increase the costs of transactions with Russian banks,” Kaja Kallas told reporters.