Russia overnight Thursday launched one of the most devastating bombardments on Ukraine’s major cities since the war began, killing at least twelve people, hours after President Donald Trump said he believed he had struck deals with both sides to end the war.
After the attacks, Trump wrote “Vladimir, STOP!” on his website Truth Social, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing,” he said. “5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”
When asked by a reporter outside the White House later on Thursday about whether he thought Putin would listen to him on stopping strikes on Ukraine, Trump responded, “I do, yeah.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he was cutting short a trip to South Africa and returning home immediately to deal with the “destruction” in his country.
“Russia continues to kill people and avoid tough pressure and accountability for this,” he said Thursday. “Unfortunately, there is a lot of destruction. Rescue operations are ongoing, the rubble of buildings is being cleared.”
The capital, Kyiv, was pummeled with 70 missiles, 48 of which were shot down, and 140 drones, 64 shot down, Ukraine’s Air Force said. It was “a particularly horrible and loud night,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a statement.
The death toll has risen to 12, according to Ukrainian officials, after they recovered 2 bodies from under the rubble. Another 90 people were injured.
Bombs also fell in the county’s second city of Kharkiv, where Mayor Ihor Terekhov urged residents to “be careful!”
Emergency workers sift through the rubble after the overnight Russian attack.
Yevheniia Sobolieva, 23, an interpreter and event manager in Kyiv, told NBC News that the overnight explosions shook her walls and slammed the doors shut in her apartment, sending her and other panicked residents into the corridor as more missiles fell.
Outside, the air was filled with smoke and ash, and the street scattered with broken glass. Sobolieva ran to take shelter at a nearby metro station, which she said, was so full of people, it was like “the first days of the full scale invasion.”
The attacks follow the latest conflicting and often contradictory statements in the U.S.-brokered peace talks.
On Wednesday, Trump said in the Oval Office that “I think we have a deal with both” sides — before suggesting that an agreement with Ukraine was still pending.
“I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy,” he said. “So far, it’s been harder.”
Earlier in the day, Trump launched his latest criticism of Zelenskyy on Truth Social, accusing his Ukrainian counterpart of making “inflammatory statements” — a reference to a Wall Street Journal interview in which Zelenskyy pushed back on Washington’s peace plan — and said of a deal that Zelenskyy needs to “GET IT DONE.”
The White House is trying to push Ukraine into a accepting a deal with Russia despite setting terms that Kyiv deems deeply unfavorable. High-level talks in the United Kingdom disintegrated earlier this week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out, leaving lower-level ministers to meet instead.
Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt Gen. Keith Kellogg, who was part of the talks, told NBC News that “talks in London yesterday were candid, constructive and productive.”
While visiting South Africa, Zelenskyy told a news conference that a document drafted at the talks “is on President Trump’s table.” He again lamented that “we do not see strong pressure on Russia and new sanctions for its aggression” on Thursday.
Witkoff is set to travel to Moscow this week to speak with President Vladimir Putin about the talks, the White House said Tuesday. Plane spotters using the website FlightRadar24 said they had tracked a plane matching one previously used by the envoy flying from Paris to Moscow overnight.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not mention Thursday’s attacks in his morning briefing with journalists. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Kyiv’s “inability to negotiate is becoming increasingly obvious.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense said it had shot down 87 Ukrainian drones overnight.
An injured woman sits near her house following a Russian airstrike in Kyiv on Thursday.
Gauging Russian support for the war is difficult given the brutality with which Putin’s regime silences dissent and political opposition. Even so, a running survey by Moscow’s Levada Center pollster shows the overwhelming majority — 80% as of February — support the invasion in some capacity.
Canvassing opinion on the streets of Moscow showed some differences of opinion.
“No deals. Let them get what they deserve,” said Evgeniy, 66, a retiree. Tatyana, 50, said she was in “favor of ceasefire because so many people are suffering.” Both declined to give their last names amid Russia’s repressive atmosphere.
For Ukrainians and their supporters abroad, Thursday’s attacks symbolized the hypocrisy of Russia’s position. Putin continues to make extreme demands — his conditions for a deal essentially resemble a Ukrainian surrender — while continuing to prosecute the invasion he launched three years ago.
Zelenskyy and members of his government say they will never accept Russian control over Crimea, a key demand of the Kremlin’s.
“Yesterday’s Russian maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw from its regions, combined with these brutal strikes, show that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace,” Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said. “Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied.”
Alexander Smith reported from London, Daryna Mayer and Artem Grudinin from Kyiv, and Keir Simmons from Dubai.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Read the full article here
