Ukraine’s Zelensky welcomed a possible week-long pause after a Russian attack caused temperatures to plummet and homes to go without heat.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed US President Donald Trump’s announcement that Russia will not attack Kiev and “various” Ukrainian towns for seven days as civilians struggle with a lack of heat. Winter temperatures are freezing.

Zelensky posted on social media on Thursday that Trump’s remarks earlier in the day were an “important statement” about “the possibility of providing security for Kiev and other Ukrainian cities during this extreme winter.”

Zelensky said negotiators discussed a moratorium on bombing during the meeting. recent ceasefire negotiations United Arab Emirates, they “expect the agreement to be implemented.”

The Ukrainian leader added: “Measures to de-escalate the situation will help make real progress towards ending the war.”

Trump said earlier on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to his request not to fire on Ukraine’s capital Kiev for a week due to extremely cold temperatures.

“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kiev and towns for a week, and he agreed,” Trump told a Cabinet meeting, citing “unusually cold” conditions in the region.

Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Thursday that 454 residential buildings in the city were still without heat, as the Ukrainian capital struggled to restore power to households following repeated Russian bombings targeting electricity and heating infrastructure in recent weeks.

Nighttime temperatures in the Ukrainian capital are expected to drop to -23 degrees Celsius (-9.4 degrees Fahrenheit) this week.

The Russian capital Moscow experienced its heaviest snowfall in 200 years in January, the Meteorological Observatory of Lomonosov Moscow State University said on Thursday, the Russian state news agency TASS reported.

Russia and Ukraine also exchanged the bodies of soldiers killed in the war on Thursday, Russian and Ukrainian officials confirmed.

Similar exchanges were reached during previous rounds of ceasefire negotiations. However, a breakthrough that would end Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine remains elusive.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov continued to pour cold water on the prospects of a ceasefire on Thursday, saying Moscow had not yet seen a “revised” 20-point ceasefire plan from Ukraine and its allies.

Russia’s top diplomat also claimed that Ukraine used brief lulls in fighting to “push” people to the front lines, Tass news agency reported.