US President Donald Trump said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had kept his word by temporarily halting strikes on Ukraine.
“He kept his word on this issue. It was important, you know, we were going to agree to anything because it's very, very cold there“, Trump told reporters at the White House.
The US president added that he had spoken to his Russian counterpart, but did not disclose the details or the date of the conversation.
On Friday evening, Trump announced that he had personally asked Putin not to strike Kiev and several other Ukrainian cities until February 1. The Russian leader's press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that such a request had been made and that it was aimed at creating favorable conditions for negotiations in Abu Dhabi.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russian troops carried out a massive attack last night on Ukrainian military-industrial complexes and energy facilities, "in response to terrorist attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces on Russian civilian infrastructure".
All the targets of the strikes were achieved, the ministry stressed.
On Tuesday evening, Ukrainian media reported a series of explosions in Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkiv. First Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said that thermal power plants in these cities were damaged.