President Donald Trump said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to not open fire on Kyiv, Ukraine, for one week due to the freezing weather rocking the region.
‘I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this,’ Trump said. ‘It’s extraordinary cold, record-setting cold. Over there too, they’re having the same conditions. It’s a big it’s a big pile of bad weather. The worst. But it was, it really they said, they’ve never experienced cold like that.’
The president held his first Cabinet meeting of 2026 Thursday, where he welcomed special envoy Steve Witkoff to the table to provide updates on his negotiations with Russia to end the war on Ukraine.
Trump continued that he’s happy he made the call to Putin despite warnings to not ‘waste’ a call to the Russian leader.
‘I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that,’ Trump said. ‘And I have to tell you, I was very nice. A lot of people said, don’t waste that call. You’re not going to get that. And he did it. And we’re very happy that they did it.’
Trump added that the agreement was a ‘very good thing.’
Russian strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine, have hobbled the city’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks, with Reuters reporting Monday that more than 1,300 apartment buildings in Ukraine’s capital have been without heat in the chilling temperatures. The strikes also have left much of the population without electricity and running water.
Witkoff said Thursday during the Cabinet meeting that negotiations have moved along productively and that the people of Ukraine are ‘hopeful and expecting that we’re going to deliver a peace deal sometime soon.’
Witkoff and fellow administration envoy Jared Kushner joined trilateral peace talks earlier in January with Ukraine and Russia as the nations inch toward a hopeful peace deal.
‘We had five Russian generals last Sunday in Abu Dhabi with Jared and I and Dan Driscoll. We think we made a lot of progress,’ Witkoff said. ‘The talks will continue in about a week, but lots of good things happening. … We have a security protocol agreement that’s largely finished. A prosperity agreement that’s largely, largely finished.’
A monthly chart of the weather in Kyiv, Ukraine, shows it has been brutally cold similar to temperatures rocking many parts of the U.S., as winter storm Fern careened across much of the United States Saturday and Sunday. The month of January in Kyiv, Ukraine, shows the highest temperature reaching 34° Fahrenheit and the lowest hitting -5° Fahrenheit, according to weather data.
The war in Ukraine has raged since the Biden administration as Russia looks to take hold of the nation and expand its footprint in Europe. The war will notch its four-year anniversary Feb. 24.
Trump campaigned in part on ending the war in Ukraine, arguing it never would have unfolded if he had been re-elected during the 2020 campaign cycle.
The president has noted that the war in Ukraine has been more difficult to solve than he anticipated, while touting he has ended eight other wars since he was sworn back into the Oval Office just more than one year ago.
