“The Russians neglected the efforts of the American side. There was a request from the President of the United States [Дональда Трампа] refrain from attacks on energy and critical infrastructure […] within a week. It was very important, an important decision,” Zelensky said.
He emphasized that “it actually started on Friday night,” January 30.
“On the night of today, the Russians, in our opinion, broke their promise. That is, either Russia now believes that there are less than four days in a week instead of seven, or they are really betting on war and have only just waited for the coldest days of this winter, when a large part of Ukraine is over -20 °C,” Zelensky said.
The president called today's massive Russian attack on Ukraine “severe” due to the use of a large number of ballistic missiles by the invaders.
“We believe that this Russian strike violates what the American side agreed upon, and there must be consequences,” Zelensky emphasized.
Context
On January 29, Trump said that he personally asked illegitimate Russian President Vladimir Putin to refrain from striking Ukraine for a week due to extreme frosts. According to Trump, Putin allegedly “agreed to do this.”
On January 30, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Trump's request to “hold off for a week” from launching strikes on Kyiv in order to “create favorable conditions” for peace talks. At the same time, Peskov said that we are talking about the period “until February 1.”
February 3 against the backdrop of the Russian attack, Trump recalled his agreement with Putin not to strike Ukraine.
