Kyiv, Ukraine
AP
—
Emergency power outages occurred in several Ukrainian cities and neighboring Moldova on Saturday, officials said, amid a promise from the Kremlin to US President Donald Trump to pause attacks on Kiev as Ukraine faces its harshest winter in years.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Denis Shmyhal said the power outage was caused by a technical failure that affected a power transmission line connecting Ukraine and Moldova.
He said the failure “caused a cascading power outage in Ukraine’s power grid” and triggered automatic protection systems.
Power outages were reported in Kiev as well as in the central and northeastern Zhytomyr and Kharkov regions. Officials said the outage cut off water supplies to Ukraine’s capital and caused the city’s subway system to be temporarily shut down due to a voltage drop in the network.
Officials said large-scale power outages also occurred in Moldova, including in the capital Chisinau.
“Due to the loss of power lines on the territory of Ukraine, an automatic protection system was activated and the power supply was cut off,” Moldova’s Energy Minister Dorin Junhiet said in a Facebook post. “We urge the public to remain calm until electricity is restored.”
The large-scale power outage follows weeks of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s already troubled energy grid, resulting in severe power shortages for an extended period of time.
The Russian government is seeking to deny Ukrainian civilians heat, light and running water during the war, in a strategy Ukrainian officials describe as “weaponizing winter.”
Russia has used similar tactics during its nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, which this winter has brought colder-than-usual temperatures and widespread hardship to civilians.
Forecasters say the bitter cold will continue in Ukraine into next week. Temperatures in some areas will drop as low as -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit), Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
President Trump said late Thursday that President Vladimir Putin had agreed to suspend attacks on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities amid extreme weather.
“I have personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kiev and its cities and towns for a week during this…extremely cold weather,” Trump said at a White House cabinet meeting. Putin said he “agreed to that,” but did not elaborate on when the request to the Russian leader was made.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions seeking clarification on the scope and timing of the limited suspension.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Friday that Trump had “personally asked” Putin to halt the attack on Kiev until Sunday “to create favorable conditions for negotiations.”
The talks are scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi on February 1 between US, Russian and Ukrainian officials. The two teams previously met in late January, the first known time that Trump administration officials met with negotiators from both Ukraine and Russia at the same time. However, it is not clear that many obstacles to peace remain. President Zelenskiy said Thursday that disagreements over what happens to occupied Ukrainian territory and Moscow’s demands for possession of unoccupied territory are key issues standing in the way of a peace deal.
Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on social media on Saturday that he was in Miami, where previous talks between Russian and US negotiators took place. Russia’s state news agency later reported that he was meeting with a “US delegation” but gave no further details.
Russia attacked Ukrainian energy facilities in several regions on Thursday, but no attacks on these facilities occurred overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.
President Zelenskiy said in a social media post that Russia is focused on targeting Ukraine’s logistics network, and that Russian drones and missiles have been attacking residential areas in Ukraine at night, as wartime is mostly at night.
President Trump claimed that Putin’s decision to suspend the strike was a concession. However, President Zelenskiy was skeptical as there was no sign that the Russian government was willing to reach a peace deal despite a US-led push to end the fighting, as the invasion marks its fourth anniversary on February 24.
“Russia does not want to end the war. There is a lot of evidence to the contrary,” President Zelenskiy said Thursday.
On the streets of Kiev on Saturday, many Ukrainians shared Zelenskyy’s skepticism.
Hundreds of people gathered on the banks of the Dnipro River in the north of the city to relax and enjoy DJ sets. The river is frozen solid enough that people can run, dance, and ride sleds on it. Some brought their dogs, others had picnics and fired up the grill. At the same time, their homes remain cold and often without running water or electricity.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Serhiy Kupov, 57, said he did not believe peace could be achieved through negotiations because Russia was “making unrealistic demands.” Kupov and his friends gathered around a small camp table, raising glasses of alcohol, and said they were prepared to endure a temporary lack of heat in their home.
Albina Sokur, 35, has also been without heat for nearly three weeks. She is the mother of 6-year-old Timur and is from Donetsk, a city that Russia captured during its military invasion of Ukraine in 2014. She says that despite the constant uncertainty, she still tried to live life “to the fullest.”
Sokul said he hopes peace can be reached through negotiations but does not believe he will ever be able to return home.
“I think there is a possibility that the front line will freeze like it did before 2022… It will just give the other team time to build up their strength. This needs to end once and for all,” she said.
