Trump said earlier he had made the request because of the “extreme cold” in Ukraine, while the Kremlin said the appeal was made to help negotiations.

Neither the US leader nor Moscow clarified when Trump had asked Putin.

“I can say that President Trump did indeed make a personal request to President Putin to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week until Feb 1 in order to create favourable conditions for negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He did not mention that it was made over the freezing temperatures, portraying it as an appeal to help negotiations, with the US pushing for an end to the almost four-year war between the neighbours.

Russia’s battering of Ukraine’s energy grid has left thousands without heating in Kyiv in an exceptionally cold winter.

The worst of the cold spell in Kyiv is due to come after Feb 1, with Ukraine’s weather agency warning temperatures could dip to as low as minus 30°C in the coming days.

“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week,” Trump told a cabinet meeting at the White House a day earlier, adding it was “because of the cold, extreme cold.”

The Kremlin only mentioned Kyiv, not the surrounding region, when speaking of Trump’s request.

This week, Ukraine has not reported the usual barrage of drones and missiles that Russia has launched at Kyiv throughout the war.

The last large-scale Russian strike on Kyiv was during the night of Jan 23 to 24.