US President Donald Trump has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating, “Let’s end this war.
Trump called Putin on Thursday, April 23, 2025 and urged him to halt the attacks on Ukraine, in a rare rebuke of the Russian leader after Moscow fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Kyiv, killing at least 10.
It was the deadliest attack on the capital in months.
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV,” Trump said on social media. “Not necessary and terrible timing. Vladimir, STOP!” he said. “Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”
The direct appeal to Putin came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his allies to put Russia under more pressure to halt its invasion. The Ukrainian leader cut short a trip to South Africa to deal with the aftermath of the deadly strikes, the latest in a wave of large-scale Russian aerial attacks that have killed dozens of civilians.
Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, is due in Russia this week. He is expected to talk with Putin about a possible deal, his fourth since Trump returned to the White House in January.
Ukraine has been battered with aerial attacks throughout Russia’s three-year invasion, but deadly strikes on Kyiv, better protected by air defences than other cities, are less common. The attacks threw more doubt on already fraught US efforts to push Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, with Trump having lashed out at Zelensky this week for not being willing to accept Russian occupation of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
“We do everything that our partners have proposed, but we cannot do what contradicts our legislation and the Constitution,” Zelensky told reporters in South Africa in response to a question about Crimea. Zelensky also questioned whether Kyiv’s allies were themselves doing enough to force Putin to agree to a full and unconditional ceasefire.
“I don’t see any strong pressure on Russia or any new sanctions against Russia’s aggression,” Zelensky said, highlighting that Trump had previously warned of repercussions if Moscow did not agree to pause the fighting. “The strikes must be stopped immediately and unconditionally,” Zelensky said, calling Thursday morning’s aerial assault “one of the most sophisticated, most brazen” of the entire war.
Russia fired at least 70 missiles and 145 drones at Ukraine between late Wednesday and early Thursday, the main target being Kyiv, the Ukrainian air force said. Rescuers on Thursday afternoon said 10 people were killed and 90 injured.
Russia said it had targeted Ukraine’s defence industry, including plants that produced “rocket fuel and gunpowder.”
Moscow’s army has launched some of its most deadly aerial strikes at Ukraine over the last month, defying Trump’s push to bring about a rapid end to the bloodshed. A ballistic missile strike on the centre of the northeastern city of Sumy killed at least 35 on April 13. An attack on Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rig in early April killed at least 19, including nine children, after a missile slammed into a residential area near a children’s playground.
Trump had on Wednesday accused Zelensky of frustrating peace efforts by ruling out recognising Russia’s claim over Crimea, a territory the US president said was “lost years ago.” Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 and then backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. Asked about Trump’s comments that Kyiv had “lost” Crimea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday: “This completely corresponds with our understanding, which we have been saying for a long time.”
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