Guterres says limited ceasefire could help protect Ukraine's energy sector from Russian strikes

He said this during a press conference in New York on Thursday, January 29, responding to a question from an Ukrinform correspondent about what advice he would give Ukrainians amid deliberate Russian strikes on energy infrastructure aimed at triggering a humanitarian disaster.

He said that the UN had been consulting with Turkey and other partners to explore the possibility of such an agreement.

According to Guterres, in the past, the UN, together with Turkey as a mediator, managed to implement what he called the only real agreement reached in the context of the crisis in Ukraine or the Russian invasion of Ukraine – apart from prisoner exchanges – the so-called Black Sea Initiative.

Guterres added that a similar arrangement should be concluded now to prevent further bombings, specifying that he referred to a kind of limited ceasefire regarding the bombing of energy infrastructure and ports.

He described this measure as limited but important to help avoid a humanitarian tragedy, emphasizing that civilians are particularly affected by attacks on energy facilities.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier stated that he had asked Putin not to strike Kyiv and other cities for a week during extreme cold and that Putin had allegedly agreed to that.

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