WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Thursday praised Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for agreeing to his request to pause his assaults on Ukraine throughout a bitter chilly snap there, at the same time as Ukrainians and out of doors observers report that deadly assaults on civilians proceed apace.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this extra ― it’s not just like cold, it’s extraordinary cold, record-setting cold over there too, they’re having the same,” Trump stated at a photograph alternative on the White House earlier than his Cabinet assembly. “It’s a big ― it’s a big pile of bad weather, the worst, but it was really ― they said they’ve never experienced cold like that, and I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that. And I have to tell you, it was very nice. People said, ‘Don’t waste the call, you’re not going to get that.’ And he did it, and we’re very happy that they did it.”
It was unclear what Trump meant, particularly, and the White House didn’t present any additional particulars. Trump typically brags about his relationship with Putin, however has had little success in persuading the Russian chief to surrender his four-year-old invasion of Ukraine, and it was unsure Thursday whether or not the purported pause was actual.
Trump’s envoys met with Ukrainian and Russian representatives final weekend in Abu Dhabi to barter an finish to the struggle attributable to Russia’s 2022 invasion of its neighbor, however a Russian promise to pause its assaults was not talked about previous to Thursday. Similarly, there was no disclosure of a latest telephone name between Trump and Putin by both facet.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy however took the chance to thank Trump publicly two hours later.
“Power supply is a foundation of life. We value the efforts of our partners to help us protect lives. Thank you, President Trump!” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “Our teams discussed this in the United Arab Emirates. We expect the agreements to be implemented. De-escalation steps contribute to real progress toward ending the war.”
It can also be unclear why, if Russia agreed to halt its assaults 4 days in the past, it has not but performed so.
A Ukrainian official who spoke on situation of anonymity informed HuffPost on Thursday afternoon the nation would know quickly sufficient if Trump had certainly gotten Putin to pause his assaults: “We will see this night.”
Just 24 hours earlier, Zelenskyy was reporting on yet one more assault on a residential space, which got here days after Putin attacked a passenger prepare with a number of drones.
“There was a direct hit by a Russian drone on a residential building in Bilohorodka, two people were killed. My condolences to the families and loved ones. A four-year-old child was successfully rescued. Assistance is being provided to all those affected by this strike,” Zelenskyy wrote on Wednesday.
Hours later, he warned that Putin was getting ready to assault once more: “The Russians are preparing a new massive strike – our intelligence indicates this. The United States, Europe, and all our partners have to understand how this discredits diplomatic talks. Every single Russian strike does.”
According to each Ukrainian and out of doors observers, Russia has attacked Ukraine each single evening this month. Tracking knowledge saved by the Institute for the Study of War exhibits that Russia has attacked Ukraine with drones, often additionally with ballistic missiles, each single day since a two-day ceasefire in May 2025. On Thursday, the day of Trump’s declare, Russia attacked utilizing 105 drones.
An American researcher in Kyiv, who was not approved to talk publicly for the group and spoke on situation of anonymity, has not seen any let-up to this point: “Sounds to me like Trump is trying to flex his ‘deal-making’ muscles but to no avail… Would be surprised if Putin felt so endeared to care for the people in the cold in Ukraine.”
Temperatures in Ukraine have been under freezing for weeks and are anticipated to drop under zero levels Fahrenheit within the coming days.
“Trump keeps begging Putin to stop humiliating him,” stated Robert Kagan, a Brookings Institution analyst who served within the State Department underneath Ronald Reagan. “But I think Putin is humiliating him deliberately to prove to everyone, especially Europe, that even ‘Mr. Tough Guy American’ can’t or won’t do anything to help them.”
Trump has been an open admirer of Putin for many years and, earlier than changing into president, had tried to construct one among his branded buildings in Moscow. In 2013, he posted on social media questioning if Putin would “become my new best friend” as a result of Trump was holding a magnificence pageant there.
In 2016, Putin helped Trump win the presidency — assist that Trump willingly accepted despite the fact that he knew it was coming from Russia — and Trump has taken pro-Putin stances and repeated Russian speaking factors ever since. A couple of months in the past, he afforded ethical equivalence to Putin’s assaults on Ukrainian civilians and Ukraine’s retaliatory strikes in opposition to Russia’s oil business infrastructure. Recently, Trump even hung a big picture within the West Wing of himself and Putin at an August assembly he organized in Alaska.
Trump’s White House on Thursday defended the show of the picture.
“This is one of many accomplishments that President Trump chooses to feature at the White House, where photographs are rotated frequently to highlight presidential travel,” stated spokeswoman Anna Kelly.
Most analysts, nevertheless, thought of the Alaska assembly a failure. Trump had stated he could be upset if Putin didn’t conform to a ceasefire on the summit. It ended a couple of hours after it began and produced no ceasefire.
Jim Townsend, an analyst with the Center for a New American Security with expertise at each the Pentagon and NATO, stated he stays unconvinced that Putin has agreed to something.
“I guess we are at a period now where we can’t even take the president at his word. I’ve heard nothing from the Kremlin. You’d think they’d be making hay about their humanitarian gesture,” he stated. “Until we get some kind of verification, this is just noise.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-putin-cold-ceasefire-ukraine_n_697bd361e4b0c378a7d68261