The US president previously said he had secured a week-long moratorium on attacks against the Ukrainian power grid amid a cold snap
© Getty Images/Hans Neleman
[RT] Russia
has agreed to partially suspend long-range strikes on Ukrainian targets
at the request of US President Donald Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov has confirmed.
Trump previously said he had personally
asked President Vladimir Putin for such restraint due to the unusually
cold weather in Ukraine, which adds additional strain to the country’s
energy system.
The weeklong moratorium is to last until February 1 and is meant to “create favorable conditions for negotiations,”
Peskov told journalists on Friday. He declined to offer additional
details about the arrangement, including whether Kiev made any
commitments for reciprocity.
Ukraine has been targeting the
Russian energy sector with kamikaze drones for months, claiming that the
economic damage this cause will weaken Russia and make it more pliable
at peace talks. The Russian military says its retaliatory strikes are
meant to degrade Ukrainian weapons production and military logistics.
Several large Ukrainian cities, including Kiev, experienced major power
and heating outages this month, as the degradation of the energy system
coincided with severe cold.
Last week, Russian, Ukrainian and US officials held for the
first time trilateral talks aimed at winding down the almost
four-year-long conflict. Previously Americans used shuttle diplomacy to
encourage de-escalation. The talks in Abu Dhabi focused on security
issues, as Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky keeps rejecting some of the key
Russian conditions for peace.
Moscow normally declines to publicly comment about details of sensitive talks, arguing that Ukraine-style “megaphone diplomacy” is counterproductive. Commenting on the Ukrainian leader’s latest rejection of compromise, Peskov said the “dynamics of the frontline speaks for itself,” referring to consistent Russian progress on the battlefield.