Shortly after President Donald Trump said Thursday afternoon that Russia had agreed to pause strikes on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities for a week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said overnight that Ukraine is prepared to halt drone and missile attacks on Russia's critical energy infrastructure, provided Putin honors a weeklong truce and refrains from launching missiles or drones at Kiev.

"If Russia does not strike our energy infrastructure — generation facilities or any other energy assets — we will not strike theirs," Zelensky told reporters in Kiev. "We want to end the war and we are ready for de-escalation steps."

Temperatures in Kiev are absolutely freezing. Large swaths of the metro area are without power after Russia targeted thermal power plants and other critical infrastructure. The government (or perhaps US taxpayers) has provided generators to businesses and some residents. At night, much of Kiev is plunged into darkness, but in areas with power, generators hum through the night.

On Thursday, Trump told reporters, "Because of the extreme cold…I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kiev and the cities and towns for a week."

According to Trump, Putin "agreed to do that," adding that "we're very happy" with the outcome.

The claim comes amid growing speculation about behind-the-scenes de-escalation talks. Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on reports suggesting Moscow and Kiev had agreed to a so-called "energy ceasefire."

Early in the Trump administration, there had been perhaps a few weeks of such an energy ceasefire, where strikes seemed minimal and limited - but it ultimately failed to stick or take off. Ukraine has not acknowledged any such fresh energy ceasefire.

It was only on Wednesday that Russian drones struck Kiev and the surrounding region, killing two people and injuring others, and damaging a residential building.

Residents and a local journalist we spoke with are not entirely optimistic about the proposed energy ceasefire. The good news is that the widely followed "Air Alert!" system, which warns people when to shelter from incoming air threats, has issued no notifications in the last 24 hours for Kiev.

As for Kiev's power grid, we suspect the humming of generators in the downtown area will persist for many months...