Trump issues rare rebuke for Putin after Kyiv attacks

Yevheniia Kravchuk, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People Party, spoke to DW on Thursday about Ukraine's position in negotiations for peace and responded to comments from US President Donald Trump.

Trump said Thursday that Russia has shown a willingness to reach an agreement to end the war by not taking over the whole of Ukraine, which the US president called a "pretty big concession".

"Ukraine will never recognize Ukrainian territories as Russian," Kravchuk said. "Ukraine will never be silent when someone wants to reward an aggressor who violates the borders and who violates the rules."

"The post (by Trump) on a social network is, of course, a powerful tool, but as I'm aware President Zelenskyy was very clear that Ukraine never received any official documents from the United States about any of these concessions." 

Kravchuk also discussed waning American support for Ukraine, after the White House warned that the US could walk away from negotiations unless Moscow and Kyiv reach an agreement.

"Russia would love to see Western allies in a quarrel to be divided. I think it's sort of their plan to divide the United States and Europe," Kravchuk said.

"I still think that we're much closer as allies with the United States and Europe than any of these countries with Russia, because Russia also always wanted to destroy the Western way of thinking, the Western way of life," she said.

Watch the entire interview with Kravchuk here:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said talks between the US and Russia to end the war in Ukraine were "moving in the right direction."

Speaking during an interview with US broadcaster CBS News on Thursday, Lavrov said Moscow is "ready to make a deal."

"But there are still some specific points — elements of this deal which need to be fine-tuned," Russia's top diplomat said during the interview, which will be aired in full on Sunday.

Lavrov said Moscow was satisfied with how talks were progressing because "President Trump is probably the only leader on Earth who recognized the need to address the root causes of this situation."

"He said that it was a huge mistake to pull Ukraine into NATO, and this was a mistake by the Biden administration and he wants to rectify this," Lavrov added.

Ukraine is not a member of the NATO military alliance.

Lavrov's remarks come after Trump issued a rare public reprimand of Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia struck Ukraine overnight with a massive combined missile and drone attack, killing at least 12 in Kyiv and injuring over 100.

During the interview, however, Lavrov denied that Russia was targeting civilians in Ukraine.

"We only target military goals or civilian sites used by the military… If this was a target used by the Ukrainian military, the Ministry of Defense, the commanders in the field have the right to attack them," the foreign minister said. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia tried to use massive airstrikes overnight as cover for increased ground incursions.

Citing a report from Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine's top military commander, Zelenskyy said the land-based attacks had been successfully repelled.

"The Russians tried to develop assault operations under the cover of their massive strike," Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

"When the maximum of our forces was focused on defense against missiles and drones, the Russians went on to significantly intensify their ground attacks. The Russians received a worthy response," the statement added.

At least 12 people were killed and more than 100 were injured during Wednesday night's attacks in Kyiv, the deadliest on the Ukrainian capital since last summer.

Missiles and drone attacks were also reported across Ukraine, including in the country's second-largest city of Kharkiv.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte met with US President Donald Trump and the two discussed the Ukraine war and the possibility of a ceasefire.

Rutte said Russia needed to move forward with negotiations.

"There is something on the table now, I think, where the Ukrainians are really playing ball. And I think the balls are clearly in the Russian court now," Rutte told reporters at the White House after meeting Trump.

Rutte also said there was consensus among European allies that Russia is a long-term threat to the region.

"We all agree in NATO that Russia is the long-term threat to NATO territory — to the whole of the Euro-Atlantic territory," he told reporters outside the White House.

During his trip to Washington, Rutte also met with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine. He's scheduled to later meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz.

US President Donald Trump said that Russia's willingness not to totally take over Ukraine represented a "pretty big concession" by Moscow.

Trump made the comment while meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, after being asked by a reporter regarding concessions that Russia may have offered to reach a peace deal.

The US president said: "Stopping taking the whole country, pretty big concession."

Trump added that he was confident about the possibility of a peace deal.

"We're putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that," he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for being inconsistent with his pledge for peace.

"When President Putin talks to American negotiators, he tells them: 'I want peace.' When he talks to the whole world, he says: 'I want peace,'" Macron said during a visit to Madagascar. 

But Putin "continues to bomb Ukraine," Macron said, adding that Putin should finally "stop lying."

The French president said the world is waiting for Russia to agree to a ceasefire, adding that the US has proposed one, the Europeans have supported it and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said "yes." 

"If President Putin says 'yes,' the weapons will fall silent."

Macron said he spoke with Donald Trump about the peace deal, where he reminded the US president that a deal depends entirely on Putin.

"American anger should only be directed at one person, President Putin," he said.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said his country and the US have made progress on a critical minerals deal, but it will "definitely not" be finalized this week.

Last week, the two countries signed a memorandum that paved the way for signing the deal, which would provide the US with access to Ukraine's rare earths, crucial for high-tech industries. In return, Ukraine hopes the deal will reinforce its relationship with the US and secure Washington's long-term support in the war with Russia.

Marchenko was in Washington this week, along with other senior Ukrainian officials, including Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

"There was progress and now our teams are working very closely together,” Shmyhal said after an event hosted by the Ukrainian embassy. "There are still some questions which we are discussing,” he said, without providing any details.

Marchenko added that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants the issue of frozen Russian assets to be part of broader discussions. Kyiv argues Russian assets frozen over its invasion of Ukraine should be made available to Kyiv to cover war damages and losses.

At least 12 people were killed after a Russian missile overnight attack on Kyiv, the deadliest assault on the Ukrainian capital since July.

Ukrainian rescuers said on Thursday that two people had been pulled from the rubble, after 10 had already been confirmed dead.

"As of 5:30 pm (14:30 UTC), the death toll in Kyiv's Sviatoshinsky district has risen to 12," Ukraine's state emergency service said on social media.

Officials say that the number of wounded has risen to 90 people.

The attack on Kyiv lasted for about 11 hours, with many of the city's residents staying awake all night, as loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital.

The strikes began around 1 a.m. local time (2200 UTC/GMT), hitting at least five neighborhoods and causing heavy damage to multiple residential buildings.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that he did not see signs that Kyiv's allies were putting strong pressure on Russia, as Washington pushes for a peace deal to end Moscow's invasion of his country.

Speaking at a press conference in South Africa alongside that country's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, Zelenskyy said, however, that Ukraine was doing the things its allies were proposing, though it could not go against its own constitution.

His remarks came in response to a question about Ukraine's position on ceasefire talks, with both the US and Moscow claiming that Kyiv is hindering a peace agreement by refusing to recognize Crimea as Russian territory, an idea floated by US President Donald Trump.

The Ukrainian leader said it was already a big compromise on Kyiv's part that it had agreed to negotiate with Russia if a truce is established.

"Russia understands that Ukraine is standing up, defending its rights and [it] is putting pressure on our people. It is also putting pressure on America," Zelensky told journalists in South Africa. "This is what I also link today's attack with," he added, in reference to Russia's overnight attack on Kyiv. 

After his talks with Zelenskyy,  Ramaphosa said South Africa was deeply concerned about the continuing conflict in Ukraine and believed the only path to peace was through diplomacy.

South Africa initially refused to condemn its ally Russia's aggression against Ukraine but in February, in an apparent shift of policy, joined a UN resolution that did so.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said the deadly overnight attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, came at a bad time and enjoined his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to finally agree on a peace deal.

"I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

"Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let's get the Peace Deal DONE!" his statement continued.

Trump's statement represents a rare reprimand by the US president of Putin over Moscow's continued acts of aggression against Ukraine.

His remarks come after Russian missiles hit Kyiv in an attack in which at least nine people were killed and more than 70 injured.

It was the deadliest assault on the city since July last year, when 33 people died after an aerial barrage targeted a hospital and residential areas.  

Russia on Thursday accused Japan of treachery and complicity in theft after Tokyo agreed last week to lend Ukraine over $3 billion (€2.6 billion) to be repaid using Russian assets that are frozen in the EU over Moscow's invasion.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow that the loan would damage already poor relations between Japan and Russia amid Tokyo's support for Kyiv as it fights against invading Russian troops. 

"We have long warned the Japanese side that participation in illegitimate experiments with the sovereign assets of the Russian Federation in any form ... will be regarded by us as complicity in theft," Zakharova said.

"We regard such a step as extremely hostile, as treacherous. It is inadmissible under both legal and universal concepts," she added.

Russia said earlier this month that Tokyo's stance on the conflict in Ukraine was standing in the way of negotiations with Japan on a peace treaty to formally end World War II between the two countries.

A territorial dispute over four islands off Japan's Hokkaido, which are known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories, has already prevented progress on signing a treaty.

The islands were captured by Soviet troops at the end of the war and have remained in Russian possession ever since, despite being claimed by Japan as its own.

A Russian military court found former Russian commander, Ivan Popov, guilty of large-scale fraud and handed him a five year sentence on Thursday, reported TASS, the Russian state news agency.

Popov was convicted for stealing more than 130 million roubles ($1.56 million) of metal products intended for building fortifications along the Ukrainian frontline.

Popov has previously criticised Moscow's military actions in Ukraine.  

He is a former major general who led Russia's 58th army and fought in Chechnya and later commanded Russian units in southern Ukraine. 

Russia's ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechayev, planned to attend the World War II commemoration in the eastern German city of Torgau on April 25 and asked for speaking time. The city declined, saying it did not wish to "provide a platform" to Russia.

Torgau is the famous meeting point of the US and Soviet troops on the Elbe River on April 25, 1945.

The city's officials also mentioned that they had not issued formal invitations and only informed many embassies about the World War II commemoration in February. 

Nechayev also appeared last week at a memorial on the Seelow Heights east of Berlin, where the largest battle of World War II on German territory took place.

The event became controversial after Germany's Foreign Office issued a handout preventing Russian representatives from being invited to World War II commemorations by the federal, state, and local governments.

Government officials are wary that Russia could use such events to justify its war against Ukraine.

The German parliament has also decided to exclude Russia and Belarus from their guest list for the main commemorative event on May 8 in Berlin, marking the end of World War II.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said Thursday's attacks on Kyiv showed that Russia was hindering a peace agreement to end its full-scale invasion, and not Ukraine, as both US President Donald Trump and the Kremlin have suggested. 

"While claiming to seek peace, Russia launched a deadly airstrike on Kyiv. This isn't a pursuit of peace, it's a mockery of it," Kallas wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "The real obstacle is not Ukraine but Russia, whose war aims have not changed."

Trump, who has floating the idea of recognizing Russian ownership of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula as part of a peace settlement, on Wednesday implied that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was hindering a deal rather than Moscow.

Ukraine has repeatedly said it will not give up Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, under any deal with Moscow.

Russia has since echoed Trump's comments, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accusing Zelenskyy of wrecking diplomacy after he categorically rejected recognizing Crimea as Russian territory.

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa said he plans to meet US President Donald Trump "soon" to discuss the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

Ramaphosa spoke while hosting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in South Africa, a visit which was cut short by Russia's overnight attacks on Kyiv.

According to Ramaphosa, he and Trump agree that "the war should be brought to an end as soon as possible."

Relations between South Africa and the US took a blow after Trump's criticism of Pretoria's policies, including the country's case at the international Court of Justice against Israel due to the war in Gaza.