US president Donald Trump turned his criticism on Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday after Russia pounded Kyiv with missiles and drones overnight, saying “Vladimir, STOP!”
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing,” Mr Trump wrote in a social media post a day after saying Ukraine’s leader was hampering peace talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When asked about the Russian strikes on Kyiv at a briefing earlier on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was continuing to hit “military and military-adjacent targets”.
Mr Trump’s rare rebuke of Mr Putin followed his criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday for saying Ukraine would not recognise Russia’s occupation of Crimea - a longtime Kyiv stance.
“This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia,” Mr Trump said in a social media post.
Mr Trump, who argued with Mr Zelenskiy in a disastrous Oval Office meeting in March, said Crimea was lost years ago “and is not even a point of discussion”.
His appeal to Mr Putin on Thursday followed an overnight Russian combined missile and drone attack triggered fires, smashed buildings and buried residents under rubble in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, killing nine people and injuring more than 70, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
Mr Zelenskiy said he would cut short a trip to South Africa on Thursday and return to Kyiv following the biggest attack on the city this year.
Six children were reported to be among the injured.
“There has been destruction. The search is continuing for people under rubble,” the State Emergency Service wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The most serious incident was at an apartment building destroyed in the Sviatoshynskyi district west of the city centre.
Pictures posted on Telegram showed rescue teams working with floodlights, moving cautiously through piles of rubble and clambering up ladders extended along the facades of buildings. Police were calling from apartment to apartment to determine whether residents were safe.
Rescue teams, the emergency service said, were operating at 13 sites in the capital with climbing specialists and sniffer dogs. Forty fires had broken out.
“Mobile telephones are heard ringing beneath rubble. The search will continue until it becomes clear that they have got everyone,” it said.
Fires had broken out in garages, administrative buildings and falling metal fragments had struck vehicles.
An air raid alert was in effect in the capital for six hours.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city in the northeast, endured two overnight waves of Russian missiles, injuring two people and smashing windows, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
There was also damage in Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, where emergency services said Russian forces launched a repeat strike on rescue teams attending a fire, injuring one worker.
Ukrainian state railway Ukrzaliznytsia said that railway infrastructure had come under attack and two railway workers were hurt.
In Kyiv and Kharkiv regions the shelling damaged track and administrative and technical buildings, but trains were operating normally.
Announcing his decision to cut short his trip to South Africa, where he has been trying to shore up international support for Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion, Mr Zelenskiy said he would immediately travel back to Ukraine after meeting South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.
“The minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine will hold all necessary meetings in South Africa to fully inform the country’s political and public leaders about the situation,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram app. - Reuters
