Vladimir Putin has been condemned for claiming to want peace after multiple Russian missile strikes killed nine and injured 63. Security sources claimed his forces launched more than 20 targeted attacks on Ukraine overnight using drones and cruise missiles, with residential areas hit.
Ukraine‘s state emergencies service DSNS cited preliminary data for the death toll which is expected to rise. In one assault on the capital Kyiv Ukraine Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 41 people including six children and a pregnant woman, were among the injured. He said falling drone wreckage triggered a number of fires in the city, and there are fears that a number of people may be trapped in a destroyed residential building.
Separate attacks on Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, left some more buried under rubble.
Anton Gerashchenko, former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs and a trusted lieutenant of president Volodymyr Zelensky, said: “Every time you hear that Putin wants peace remember this.”
The death and destruction came hours after US President Donald Trump accused Volodymyr Zelensky of harming peace negotiations after he ruled out recognising Russian control of Crimea.
It comes as US President Donald Trump said a deal to end the three-year conflict is “very close” as he heaped pressure on Volodymyr Zelensky to “get it done”.
President Trump used his Truth Social Platform to vent anger at the Ukrainian president.
In an extraordinary broadside, he said: “We are very close to a deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE.
“I look forward to being able to help Ukraine and Russia get out of this complete and total MESS, that would have never started if I were president!”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified: “Enough is enough: the president is frustrated, his patience is running very thin, he wants to do what’s right for the world, he wants to see peace, he wants to see the killing stop, but you need both sides of the war willing to do that.”
After Russian president Putin declared a 30-hour truce over Easter president Zelensky said Russia had attempted to reel the world into believing it wanted to end the war but “failed to uphold its own promise of ceasefire”.
He said: “As of Easter morning, we can say that the Russian army is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire, but in some places, it does not abandon individual attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,
“Easter has clearly demonstrated that the only source of this war, and the reason it drags on, is Russia.”
According to reports, President Trump’s plan to end the war includes a proposal that America would formally recognise Russian sovereignty over Crimea, which was annexed in 2014 and which Ukraine maintains as its territory.
He said: “The situation for Ukraine is dire – He can have peace or he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country.”
Speaking on Wednesday, president Trump said: “I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelensky.
“I thought Zelenskyy would be easier to deal with, but so far it’s harder. I think we have a deal with both.”
Asked if he was planning to meet Mr Putin soon, he said “probably not, but I hope to meet with him soon thereafter”.
President Trump’s peace plan, reported by US media over the weekend, would freeze the frontlines in Ukraine as part of an agreement.
In a social media post Mayor Klitschko said six children and a pregnant woman were among those injured in the overnight Russian attack.
He said “people are under the rubble” of a destroyed residential building.
Distressing pictures showed teams searching through the wreckage in a desperate hunt for survivors.
