President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin not to engage in military activities in Kyiv and surrounding areas for a week due to an extraordinary cold snap.
Mr Trump told a US cabinet meeting that the Russian leader has agreed. Moscow has yet to confirm.
"It's extraordinary cold, record-setting," he added. "It's a big pile of bad weather, the worst."
Temperatures next week were expected to plunge well below freezing across Ukraine, with many residents facing heating and electricity cuts due to damaged infrastructure.
Last week, the US brokered talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the nearly four-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said territorial disputes remain central, as they did during the talks that concluded at the weekend.
He said intelligence indicated that Russia was preparing to launch a large-scale drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Moscow, meanwhile, has been steadfast in its demand that Ukraine give up control of the eastern Donbas region. "We've been making a lot of progress [in the talks]," Mr Trump said.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff, who attended the talks in Abu Dhabi alongside Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, said there were “lots of good things happening between the counterparties".
"We have a security protocol agreement that's largely finished, a prosperity agreement that's largely finished," he told the cabinet meeting. "And I think the people of Ukraine are now hopeful and expecting that we're going to deliver a peace deal some time soon."
Mr Witkoff said the negotiations would resume next week.
