‘Vladimir, STOP!’: Trump tells Putin after deadly Kyiv strike
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Ukrainian rescuers carrying the body of a victim at the site of a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, on April 24.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump called on Mr Vladimir Putin on April 24 to halt attacks on Ukraine, in a rare rebuke of the Russian leader after Moscow fired missiles and drones at Kyiv in the deadliest attack on the capital in months.
His direct appeal to Mr Putin came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his allies to put Russia under more pressure to halt its invasion.
Mr Zelensky cut short a trip to South Africa to deal with the aftermath of the strikes, the latest in a wave of Russian aerial attacks that have killed dozens of civilians.
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes,” Mr Trump, who is pushing to end the war, said on social media.
“Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP!”
Mr Trump, who has been accused of favouring Russia and has often vilified Mr Zelensky, was asked by reporters what concessions Moscow had offered in negotiations.
“Stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country – pretty big concession,” he replied.
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, hoping to take the country in days, but has since been bogged down in a bloody war with huge casualties on both sides.
Mr Trump on April 23 accused Mr Zelensky of frustrating peace efforts by ruling out recognising Russia’s claim over Crimea, a territory the US president said was “lost years ago”.
In contrast, Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on April 24 it was Russia, not Ukraine, that needed to move forward in negotiations.
“The balls are clearly in the Russian court now,” Mr Rutte told reporters at the White House after meeting Mr Trump.
Ceasefire deal
Mr Trump’s envoy, Mr Steve Witkoff, is due in Russia this week where he is expected to hold another round of talks with Mr Putin on a possible ceasefire deal.
Ukraine has been battered by aerial attacks throughout Russia’s three-year full-scale invasion but strikes on Kyiv, better protected by air defences than other cities, are less common.
Mr Zelensky said Russia used a North Korean ballistic missile in the strike, which killed at least 12.
The assault threw more doubt on fraught US efforts to push Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, with Mr Trump having lashed out at Mr Zelensky this week
“We do everything that our partners have proposed, only what contradicts our legislation and the Constitution we cannot do,” Mr Zelensky told reporters in South Africa in response to a question about Crimea.
Mr Zelensky also questioned whether Kyiv’s allies were themselves doing enough to force Mr Putin to agree to a full and unconditional ceasefire.
“I don’t see any strong pressure on Russia or any new sanctions packages against Russia’s aggression,” Mr Zelensky said, highlighting that Mr Trump had previously warned of repercussions if Moscow did not agree to pause the fighting.
‘Pulled out of the rubble’
Loud blasts sounded over the Ukrainian capital around 1am after air raid sirens rang out across Kyiv, AFP journalists said.
Russia fired at least 70 missiles and 145 drones at Ukraine between late on April 23 and early April 24, the main target being Kyiv, the Ukrainian air force said.
“As of 5.30pm, the death toll in Kyiv’s Sviatoshinsky district has risen to 12,” Ukraine’s state emergency services reported, with the number of wounded rising to 90.
Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, on April 24.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Russia said it had targeted Ukraine’s defence industry, including plants that produced “rocket fuel and gunpowder.”
Ms Olena Davydiuk, a 33-year-old lawyer in Kyiv, told AFP she saw windows breaking and doors “falling out of their hinges.”
“People were being pulled out of the rubble,” she added.
In Sviatoshinsky, west of Kyiv, an AFP journalist saw a body bag containing one of the victims set on a strip of grass.
A woman sat on a small folding chair stroking the arm of another victim, the body covered in a striped blue sheet.
A woman sitting next to the body of a victim at the site of a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, on April 24, 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
Moscow has launched some of its deadliest aerial strikes at Ukraine over the last month – defying Mr Trump’s push to bring about a rapid end to the bloodshed.
A ballistic missile strike on the centre of north-eastern city of Sumy killed at least 35
