US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said he has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin not to target the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv for one week as the region experiences freezing temperatures.

The call for a pause in attacks on Ukraine’s capital comes as Russia has been pounding the country’s critical infrastructure, leaving many without heat in the middle of winter.

“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this … extraordinary cold,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

He added that Putin has “agreed to that” but there was no confirmation from Russia.

The Republican president added that he was pleased that Putin has agreed to the pause. Kyiv is forecast to enter a brutally cold stretch starting on Friday that is expected to last into next week.

“A lot of people said, ‘Don’t waste the call. You’re not going to get that’,” Trump said of his request to Putin. “And he did it. And we’re very happy that they did it.”

A Russian drone attack killed three people in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region overnight as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow is planning another large-scale barrage despite plans for further US-brokered peace talks at the weekend.

The Zaporizhzhia strike caused a major blaze in an apartment building, according to emergency services.

Firefighters also worked through the night to put out fires in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where two people were injured, officials said.