UPDATE 1-Kremlin says Putin agreed to halt strikes on Kyiv until February 1

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, replying to reporters' questions on Friday, did not cite the weather as a factor. "President Trump did indeed make a personal ⁠request ‌to President Putin ⁠to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week until February 1 in order to ‍create favourable conditions for negotiations," he said.

The Kremlin said on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ‌agreed to a personal request from U.S. President Donald Trump to halt strikes on Kyiv until February 1 ⁠to create "favourable conditions" for peace talks.

Trump said on Thursday that Putin had agreed to refrain from firing on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities for ​a week because of cold weather, but did not say when ‍that period would expire. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, replying to reporters' questions on Friday, did not cite the weather as a factor.

"President Trump did indeed make a personal ⁠request ‌to President Putin ⁠to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week until February 1 in order to ‍create favourable conditions for negotiations," he said. Asked to confirm that Putin had agreed, ​he said: "Yes of course, there was a personal request from President ⁠Trump."

It was not clear whether Peskov was using "Kyiv" to refer only to the capital city, ⁠where hundreds of apartments have been left without heat and power after Russian strikes during the war in Ukraine, or to denote ⁠the whole of the country. Kyiv has said it will reciprocate if ⁠Moscow, which ‌sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, forgoes strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

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