Ukraine Selenskyj skeptical after Trump's announcement of a ceasefire
Will there be a limited ceasefire for Ukraine as announced by US President Donald Trump? The Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, was cautious about this. He began by thanking the USA for its efforts to achieve a moratorium on Russian attacks on energy facilities. "The situation now at night and in the coming days, the actual situation in our energy facilities and cities" will show whether there will actually be such a ceasefire, Selensky said in his evening video message.
30.01.2026, 05:20
SDA
Trump had explained that he had asked Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in a telephone call to refrain from striking cities and energy facilities in the neighboring country for a week due to the extreme cold in Ukraine. Putin had agreed to this request, Trump said. He did not say when this waiver would apply - there was no official confirmation from Moscow itself.
Speculation was already circulating before Trump's announcement
However, there had already been speculation about a limited ceasefire before Trump's announcement - both in Ukraine and in Russia. According to the Russian military blogger Romanov Light, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow is said to have already implemented a ban on firing on Ukrainian cities and energy facilities on Thursday morning. The blog Rybar, which is close to the Russian Ministry of Defense, also mentioned rumours of an imminent partial ceasefire.
A possible ceasefire was sharply criticized on both channels. The shelling of civilian infrastructure is seen there as a legitimate means of exerting pressure on Kiev.
Ukrainian civilians in need
Russia has subjected Ukraine to heavy airstrikes during this relatively harsh winter. The already severely weakened electricity and heating network was systematically attacked further. Two heavy attacks hit Kiev in the first half of January.
Following renewed shelling of the heating power plants on Saturday, around 6,000 apartment blocks - a good half of the city of over a million inhabitants - were left without district heating in temperatures that were in some cases double-digit below zero. There are now "only" around 450 blocks of flats left.
After two days with temperatures slightly above zero, severe frost is expected again at the weekend, with some temperatures falling below minus 20 degrees at night. Mayor Vitali Klitschko has already called on residents to leave Kiev, at least for a short time, if possible.
Uncertainty remains
Selenskyj is not the only one in Ukraine to meet the announcement from Washington with a certain degree of skepticism. The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, called on his compatriots to prepare for a disaster. Russia could use the cold snap to launch another heavy wave of attacks.
And things didn't really stay calm during the night: the Ukrainian governor of the embattled Zaporizhzhya region, Ivan Fedorov, announced that there had been a drone attack on the regional capital. An industrial building had been hit, he wrote on Telegram. A fire had broken out there and, according to initial information, there were no casualties. He did not provide further details on the type of facility hit.
