US President Donald Trump has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a week-long pause in attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, following a personal appeal. Trump announced the purported agreement during a White House meeting, saying he had asked Putin not to strike Kyiv and other towns for a week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he welcomed the US effort but did not immediately confirm the ceasefire was in place, calling it an 'important statement' about security during the extreme winter period. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also praised the truce efforts but condemned the ongoing 'systematic and brutal destruction of Ukraine's civilian infrastructure by Russian attacks'.
At least six people were killed in Russian strikes across central and southern Ukraine on Thursday. In the Zaporizhzhia region, shelling killed a 62-year-old man and two women aged 26 and 50, and caused a major fire in an apartment block. In the Kherson region, a bombardment killed a 46-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman. A Russian attack on the central city of Kryvyi Rih killed an elderly woman. Two people were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where firefighters battled blazes.
The European Union has blacklisted Russia for risk of money laundering, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, adding that the move would slow down and increase the cost of transactions with Russian banks. Separately, Ukraine’s defence minister said it was working with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to stop Russia from using the company’s Starlink satellite internet system to guide drones, after Kyiv discovered Starlink terminals on Russian long-range drones.
The UN nuclear watchdog’s board of governors is to meet on Friday to discuss nuclear safety in Ukraine, amid growing concerns over volatile conditions at Ukrainian power plants. The International Atomic Energy Agency noted that recent attacks had caused significant damage to energy infrastructure essential for the safe operation of nuclear plants, after the Chernobyl plant lost all off-site power last week.
