By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) – Severe winter conditions gripping both Russia and Ukraine have drawn renewed attention as the war between the two countries will enter its fifth year next month.
The Russia-Ukraine war, which will mark its fourth anniversary on Feb. 24, continues amid Moscow’s claims of slow but steady military gains in eastern Ukraine during the winter period.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he “personally asked” Russian President Vladimir Putin to refrain from firing on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities for a week because of the “extreme cold” weather.
That same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the issue had been discussed during trilateral peace talks held in Abu Dhabi last week.
Earlier on Friday, Zelenskyy told journalists that Ukraine is prepared to stop strikes on Russian energy infrastructure if Moscow does the same, while emphasizing that there has been no direct dialogue or agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.
Later in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Trump had asked Putin to pause strikes in Ukraine for a week, but declined to specify whether Putin agreed to the request.
- State of emergency
Trump’s comments came after Zelenskyy earlier this month declared a state of emergency in Ukraine’s energy sector due to extreme weather and Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, leaving more than 1 million people in Kyiv and other cities without electricity.
Last week, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said that Ukraine’s energy system experienced its “most difficult day” since a nationwide blackout was triggered by Russian strikes in November 2022.
Trump described conditions in Ukraine as “not just cold,” but “extraordinary, record-setting cold,” as the country’s national weather service forecast freezing temperatures nationwide over the coming week.
The Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center said temperatures in Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions are expected to fall to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit) between Feb. 1 and 3.
In a statement on Telegram on Thursday, the center said that, with the exception of southern Ukraine and the Zakarpattia region, temperatures across other regions of the country are expected to drop to between minus 20 and 27 degrees Celsius (minus 4 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit) during the same period.
“On Feb. 4 and 5, starting from the west and southwest, we expect a gradual weakening of frosts and a change in the synoptic situation,” it added, warning that the conditions would hinder the work of energy and utility services and disrupt road, rail, and electric transport.
- Record Moscow snowfall
Similar extreme conditions have also been reported in Russia, where record snowfall has been observed, particularly in Moscow.
Moscow State University (MSU) said in an article published Thursday that January “turned out to be cold and unusually snowy” in the capital, citing an “abnormally high amount” of precipitation caused by “deep and extensive cyclones with intensified atmospheric fronts passing over the Moscow region.”
“By January 29, the MSU Meteorological Observatory recorded almost 92 millimeters of precipitation, which is already the highest amount in the last 203 years,” the article said, citing Mikhail Lokoshchenko, head of the MSU observatory.
Heavy snowfall has also hit Russia’s Far East, especially the Kamchatka region, where Governor Vladimir Solodov appealed to the federal government for “help in eliminating the consequences of abnormal snowfalls.”
“The support of the head of state (Putin) is particularly important now, when the region has been hit by the strongest snowfalls in the last 50 years,” Solodov said on Telegram on Feb. 22.
Meanwhile, Vera Polyakova, head of the Kamchatka Hydrometeorology Department, told state news agency RIA on Jan. 20 that 370 millimeters (14.6 inches) of precipitation fell in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in December 2025, with another 163.6 millimeters (6.4 inches) recorded during the first half of this month.
She said those figures were 316% and 149% above the monthly average, respectively.