A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
After a phone call with President Trump yesterday, the leaders of Russia and Ukraine have agreed to stop striking each other's energy infrastructure as part of a limited ceasefire deal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pushing for a total ceasefire that would include civilian infrastructure. So far, the Kremlin has not agreed. Here's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Hello, Taras.
I meet Taras Yatsenko (ph) in his upscale neighborhood in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
TARAS YATSENKO: So I live, like, a few blocks from here.
BEARDSLEY: Last September, he was asleep in his house with his wife and three daughters when the air-raid sirens began to wail. They heard swarms of drones overhead and knew missiles were on their way because of an app Ukrainians have on their phones.
YATSENKO: My kids started crying, shouting. And they said, oh, Daddy, let's go to the basement. You know, you had a very short time to make your decision - should you go down to the basement, or should you still stay here? - because, you know, missile, it takes just seconds. So I said, no, no, no. We stay here.
BEARDSLEY: Seconds later, a hypersonic Kinzhal missile shook their house, but they were fine. A few blocks over, the Bazylevych family wasn't so lucky. Forty-three-year-old Yevheniia and her three daughters were killed in their stairwell while running to their basement. Today there are pictures and a shrine with candles and teddy bears outside their damaged, boarded-up house. President Zelenskyy is seeking a broader ceasefire to include residential areas like this one, as well as ports and railways. He spoke to the media last night.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: "We had 107 Shahed drones in the skies tonight," said Zelenskyy, "and I'm afraid that will continue until we get an agreement, hopefully a broader one." Zelenskyy said he felt Trump had really listened to him on last night's phone call. The U.S., Ukraine and Russian officials are expected to meet in the coming days in Saudi Arabia to figure out how to implement the partial ceasefire deal, though it's unclear when it would take effect.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Kyiv.
(SOUNDBITE OF ANDREW BIRD'S "ETHIO INVENTION NO. 1") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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