Russia launched a missile attack Thursday on Kyiv, killing at least two and wounding dozens hours after US President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for refusing to accept Moscow’s occupation of Crimea as a peace deal.
The Ukrainian capital was attacked “by enemy missiles” in the early hours, with flights of drones heard across the city by AFP journalists as residents hid in bomb shelters.
City mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were killed and 54 others wounded so far in the attack.
Of these, “38 of them, including six children, were hospitalised,” he said, adding that the rest of the wounded were treated at the scene.
In Ukraine’s east, the city of Kharkiv was hit by seven missiles, said city mayor Igor Terekhov, who later warned that “a massive drone attack on the city continues”.
“Stay safe!” Terekhov said on Telegram.
Hours earlier, Trump had said a peace deal was “very close” — and effectively closed with Moscow — but accused Zelensky of being “harder” to negotiate with.
The Ukrainian president’s refusal to accept US terms for ending the conflict — which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 — “will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field’,” he said.
“I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelensky,” Trump told reporters. “I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelensky. So far it’s been harder.”
Ahead of Trump’s broadside, Vice President JD Vance laid out the US vision for a peace deal where Russia would get to keep already occupied swaths of Ukraine, which include Crimea.
Zelensky has rejected this as a violation of Ukraine’s constitution.
That in turn prompted an outburst from Trump, in which he accused Zelensky of being “inflammatory” and taking a position “very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia.”
Zelensky “can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said Crimea — a lush Black Sea peninsula with longtime major Soviet and Russian naval facilities — “was lost years ago” and “is not even a point of discussion.”
Zelensky responded by posting on social media a 2018 “Crimea declaration” by Trump’s then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo, which said Washington “rejects Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea.”
As Kyiv was bombarded with a Russian missile attack, Zelensky’s top aide took to Telegram, saying “Russia is attacking Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities with missiles and drones right now”.
“Putin shows only a desire to kill,” said Andriy Yermak. “The fire must stop. The attacks on civilians must stop.”
– ‘Freeze’ Russia’s gains –
Weeks into a US-initiated process, Trump’s patience was “running very thin,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
Intense US pressure on Ukraine to accept a deal comes after Trump regularly boasted on the campaign trail that he would resolve the conflict in 24 hours.
He has put no equivalent visible pressure on Russia, while dangling a lifting of massive US economic sanctions against Moscow if the fighting stops.
Meanwhile, on a trip to India, his deputy Vance gave the fullest public explanation of the US plan so far, saying the deal would “freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today.”
“The Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own,” Vance said.
Freezing the frontlines would mean Ukraine losing large areas to Russia.
The vice president did not explain what territory Russia — which seized Crimea in 2014 — would have to give up.
It was time for Moscow and Kyiv “to either say ‘yes,’ or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vance said.
Growing speculation over Washington being ready to recognise Russian rule over Crimea has alarmed European capitals.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said “Ukraine’s territorial integrity and European aspirations are very strong requirements for Europeans.”
A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters “it has to be up to Ukraine to decide its future.”
Top Ukrainian officials wrapped up a round of talks in London on Wednesday with representatives from Britain, France, Germany and the United States.
US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Moscow this week and Trump said he would likely meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly after his trip to the Middle East in mid-May.
The diplomatic wrangling and strikes on Kyiv came after a fresh wave of Russian air attacks that shattered a brief Easter truce, killing nine and wounding at least 30 more in the southeastern city of Marganets.
In light of the attacks, Zelensky has called for an “immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire.”