KYIV, Ukraine: Russia resumed strikes on Kyiv on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said, as a week-long truce announced by US President Donald Trump gave way to renewed attacks in freezing conditions.
Trump said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to stop striking Kyiv and “various towns” during cold weather.
The Kremlin said the truce would last until Sunday but did not link it to the subzero temperatures. Ukraine said Moscow had kept up its strikes anyway.
Russia hit Kyiv “in the bitter cold with another massive strike” overnight, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, said Tuesday on Telegram.
He urged the capital’s residents to stay in shelters, and said in a later post that two people had been wounded.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, two people were wounded by Russian shelling, regional military chief Oleg Synegubov said.
The hours-long attack targeted energy infrastructure and aimed to “cause maximum destruction… and leave the city without heat during severe frost”, Synegubov wrote on Telegram.
Authorities had to cut heating to more than 800 homes to prevent the wider network from freezing, he said, urging people to go to round-the-clock “invincibility points” around the city if they needed to warm up.
Overnight temperatures plunged to minus 17C in Kyiv and to minus 23C in Kharkiv.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will hit the four-year mark on February 24.
A second round of talks between Russian, Ukrainian, and US officials is due to begin on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
Territory remains a sticking point, and the warring sides have not yet shown willingness for compromise.
Russia wants full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which Kyiv has ruled out, saying such a move would only embolden Moscow.
