There was, however, one obvious problem: Putin didn’t pause his attacks on Ukraine. Indeed, the day before the Republican’s boasts, a Russian strike on a civilian passenger train in northeastern Ukraine killed five people. A HuffPost report added, “According to both Ukrainian and outside observers, Russia has attacked Ukraine every single night” in January.

As this week got underway, Trump circled back to peddle the same discredited claim.

Trump: "I did call up President Putin and he's agreed -- they have the same cold wave that we do, maybe different because it's pretty far away, but it's the equivalent. And Ukraine is a very cold country, much colder than us. I asked him if he wouldn't shoot for one week and he's agreed to do it."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-02T21:49:11.987Z

“I did call up President Putin and he’s agreed,” the Republican told reporters at a bill-signing event in the Oval Office. “I asked [Putin] if he wouldn’t shoot for a period of one week, no missiles going into Kyiv or any other towns, and he’s agreed to do it.”

Less than 24 hours later, The Associated Press reported:

Russia carried out a major attack on Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, a day before representatives of the two countries were due to attend U.S.-brokered talks on ending the 4-year-old all-out war.

At least 10 people were wounded in a bombardment of at least five regions of Ukraine that comprised 450 long-range drones and 70 missiles, including a record number of 32 ballistic missiles. It specifically took aim at the power grid, Zelenskyy said, as part of what Ukraine says is Moscow’s ongoing campaign to deny civilians light, heating and running water during the coldest winter in years.

So, to recap: Trump praised Putin last week, thanking the Russian leader for pausing attacks in Ukraine, while Putin launched additional attacks in Ukraine. And this week, Trump did the same thing, again celebrating his successful appeal to Putin, touting the Russian leader’s willingness to pause the deadly violence while the latter was committing additional acts of deadly violence.