Russia attacks Ukraine as Trump presses Zelenskyy for deal

Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Bloomberg News on Apr 24, 2025

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Russia hit Ukraine with a barrage of missiles and drones overnight, killing at least nine people in the capital, even as U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted up pressure on Kyiv to accept a peace deal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would cut short a trip to South Africa to return to the war-battered country after eight regions came under attack. Kyiv bore the brunt of the strikes, leaving more than 70 injured, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram Thursday.

“Unfortunately, there is significant destruction,” Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to social-media platform X, adding that 44 days had passed since Kyiv agreed to a U.S.-proposed ceasefire. “Rescue operations are ongoing, and the rubble of residential buildings is being cleared.”

The attack occurred hours after Trump piled pressure on the Ukrainian leader to accept a deal that critics say favors Russian President Vladimir Putin — reinforcing his assertion that Zelenskyy is a barrier to an agreement. Ukraine and its European allies have sought to slow Trump’s rush for a deal over worries that it will sacrifice European security.

Russia fired 70 missiles of various types as well as 145 drones against Ukraine in the overnight barrage, with the main bulk of them aimed at the capital, the country’s Air Force said. Ukraine relied on F-16 and Mirage jets provided by its western allies to help fend off the attack, downing 48 missiles and 64 Shahed drones.

Zelenskyy ordered Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to open a channel to allies to discuss air defense. Kyiv needs to bolster its ability to down ballistic missiles, Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told local television.

Poland’s air force scrambled fighter jets in what has become a standard response to a major aerial strike on its neighbor since Putin ordered Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.

“Putin only demonstrates the desire to kill,” Zelenskyy’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, posted to X on Thursday. “The fire must cease. Strikes against civilians must stop.”

Returning immediately

Elsewhere, two people were injured in the region of Kharkiv in the east as well as another two in Zaporizhzhia in the south, while an industrial facility was damaged in Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, without casualties. The strike also reached Zhytomyr region in the north and Khmelnytskyi in the west.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram that its air defense had downed 87 Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over the Moscow region.

Zelenskyy said he would brief South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the attacks and the need for diplomacy, then return to Kyiv immediately after their meeting.

Trump meanwhile lashed out against the Ukrainian president on his social media platform for saying that his country wouldn’t recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea, calling it a violation of the constitution. Trump said a proposed deal wouldn’t ask Ukraine to do so.

Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday in India that any potential deal would have to include “some territorial swaps” and the border may not wind up reflecting the front lines as they stand now. He said the U.S. has issued a “very explicit proposal” to Russia and Ukraine and warned it could walk away from the deal if they don’t agree.

European allies are insisting that a ceasefire and clarity over security guarantees for Ukraine must precede any agreement that involves negotiations over territory, according to people familiar with the matter.

At a meeting in Paris last week, U.S. officials presented Europe and Ukraine with a new proposal to end the war that would effectively freeze the conflict largely along existing battle lines, Bloomberg reported previously. The U.S. is also willing to acknowledge Russia’s occupation of Crimea, which is internationally recognized as Ukrainian territory, and to ease sanctions on Moscow as part of any potential deal.

“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,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha posted to X on Thursday. “Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied.”