“It was Sunday to Sunday, and it opened up and he hit them hard last night,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “He kept his word on that […] we’ll take anything, because it’s really, really cold over there.”
Trump said the temporary halt had been arranged to help Ukraine prepare for freezing temperatures. The pause also coincided with U.S.-brokered peace talks, which resumed Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky disputed the timeline, saying the truce began last Friday—a day after Trump announced the deal—and criticized Russia’s actions as a breach of the spirit of diplomacy.
“It was the U.S. proposal to halt strikes on energy during diplomacy and severe winter weather. The president of the United States made the request personally. Russia responded with a record number of ballistic missiles,” Zelensky said in a statement Tuesday evening.
He renewed calls for U.S. lawmakers to advance a long-delayed sanctions bill and urged European countries to restrict earnings from Russian oil tankers.
“Russia must feel pressure so that it moves in negotiations toward peace,” Zelensky said.
Last week, Zelensky said there was no formal agreement with Moscow, but both sides had informally accepted the American proposal to stop strikes on energy infrastructure during talks.
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Source: Politico, PAP, Euronews