Russian strikes on Kyiv kill 12, prompting Trump to rebuke Putin

Donald Trump has expressed his frustration after Russian strikes killed at least 12 people in an overnight attack on Kyiv and suggested a deadline for a ceasefire deal with Ukraine.

A Ukrainian serviceman carries a dog out of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike in a residential neighborhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday. Picture: AP /Evgeniy Maloletka

In a direct response to the biggest and deadliest aerial barrage on Kyiv by Moscow’s forces this year, President Trump made a personal appeal to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to stop attacks on Ukraine and agree to a peace deal.

“Not necessary, and very bad timing,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday after the attack. “Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

The overnight missile-and-drone attack killed 12 people and injured 90 others in the Ukrainian capital part of a countrywide assault that involved 215 missiles and explosive drones, according to Ukraine’s air force. Russia said it was targeting “enterprises in Ukraine’s aviation, rocket and space, machine-building and armoured vehicle industries” among other sites.

Speaking in the Oval Office alongside Jonas Gahr Store, Norway’s prime minister after the Truth Social post, Trump was asked why he was not putting more pressure on Russia.

“You don’t know what pressure I’m putting on Russia. They’re dealing,” he replied. “We’re putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that. Some people that are close to it know, or [Putin] wouldn’t be talking right now.”

He added: “I think he wants to make a deal. We’re going to find out very soon. But it takes two to tango. And you have to have Ukraine want to make a deal too. They’re being hit very hard.”

Asked if he would consider more sanctions for Russia “if the bombs keep falling”, Trump suggested a deadline for US peace efforts, saying: “I’d rather answer that question in a week. I want to see if we can have a deal.”

Asked if the US believed Crimea should be handed to Russia, Trump said it was “just handed over” under President Obama. “Now they say, well, can you get it back? I think that’s going to be a very difficult thing to do.”

He was also asked what concessions Russia had offered, and replied: “Stopping the war. Stopping taking the whole country. Pretty big concession.”

Trump’s frustration with both sides of the conflict is building as talks to end the war have stalled in recent days. On Wednesday, Trump criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for refusing to accept a peace proposal that includes Washington’s legal recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has occupied since 2014. The US president pointed out that Ukraine wasn’t required to recognise Crimea as Russian.

Ukrainian rescuers operate at the site of a Russian missile attack in Kyiv. Picture: AFP

But Trump had largely refrained from speaking out against Putin, also saying Wednesday he thought there was a deal with Russia and that Zelensky was harder to deal with than he had hoped. The attack on Kyiv, which sent residents fleeing to shelters at 1am, has turned his attention to Russia’s prosecution of the war and toward Putin personally. Some among the president’s Republican allies have also become increasingly critical of Putin’s refusal to accept a ceasefire.

In March, the US proposed a 30-day truce that Ukraine agreed to, but Putin declined, saying “root causes” of the conflict would need to be resolved first. Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, aiming to overthrow the government in Kyiv and replace it with a puppet administration that would align it with Moscow rather than the West.

Trump had pledged to end the war within 24 hours on the campaign trail but his administration has since targeted his first 100 days in office, or the end of April, as the deadline. In recent days, his administration has repeatedly threatened to walk away from efforts to bring the war to an end if progress isn’t made soon.

Medics tend to an injured woman in an ambulance near a house destroyed by a Russian air strike in a residential neighbourhood in Kyiv. Picture: AP

Ukraine wants an unconditional ceasefire before peace talks, but Russia has said it would only agree to a longer pause in the fighting under certain conditions, which Ukraine wouldn’t agree to.

The US has put forward a proposal that would freeze the front line at its current position, allowing Russia to keep most of the territory it has taken during the conflict. Ukraine would have to give up on aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

The two-page document makes no explicit statement about future US military support for Ukraine in the event that Russia invades again, officials say, but leaves open the possibility that other European forces could support Kyiv. It doesn’t put limits on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, something Russia had wanted.

Ukraine has pushed back the proposal on a range of issues and it isn’t clear that Russia would agree to the terms. So far, the Kremlin has said it was determined to continue with peace negotiations and wouldn’t comment on the issue of US recognition of Crimea.

Even as Putin talked about peace and announced a short-lived and poorly observed Easter ceasefire, Russian troops launched a spring offensive across the front line. Earlier this week, the Russian president spoke at a military conference about Russia’s expanding arms production, especially in drones, as well as the need to increase defence production for the frontline.

On Thursday, Zelensky told a news conference in South Africa, where he had travelled to attend a Group of 20 meeting, that Ukraine’s willingness to have a ceasefire and negotiate with a country that had attacked and occupied its territory was “a big compromise.”

A local resident holds a cat in front of damaged apartment buildings in Kyiv on Thursday. Picture: AFP

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 145 drones early Thursday, all but seven of which were intercepted, and 70 missiles, of which 48 were knocked down. Zelensky said he would cut short his trip to the G-20 as a result of the attack.

“The occupiers, suffering critical losses at the front and having no strategic gains, are acting like terrorists — striking civilian infrastructure and our cities, killing women and children,” said Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, head of Ukraine’s armed forces.

Videos of the overnight attack on the capital show two missiles dropping out of the sky, one after another, a mushrooming cloud of smoke following.

One of the hardest hit was Kyiv’s Svyatoshyn neighbourhood, where the blast tore through a residential area, collapsing buildings, blowing out walls and windows, crumpling cars and smashing through trees. Twelve buildings were damaged in the neighbourhood, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko said.

Rescue workers clear the rubble from a heavily damaged house. Picture: AP

Rescuers who arrived at the site in darkness found one woman buried deep in the debris with only her head visible. They dug her out by the light of flashlights and sent her for medical treatment.

Even as rescuers searched for victims, the air-raid alert continued, at one point forcing them to stop and seek shelter as Russia launched a fresh wave of drones and ballistic missiles across the country.

Moscow’s mass killings of civilians have intensified in recent weeks, including a strike in Kryviy Rih that killed nine children and 11 adults, and one in Sumy that killed 35 people.

Wall Street Journal