{"id":21343,"date":"2025-04-15T07:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T07:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/21343\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T07:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T07:07:10","slug":"tuesday-briefing-how-donald-trump-has-left-ukrainian-civilians-in-greater-danger-than-ever-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/21343\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday briefing: How Donald Trump has left Ukrainian civilians in greater danger than ever | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Russia claimed that its ballistic missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy<\/a> was aimed at Ukrainian army commanders. But the truth is that the attack\u2019s brutal toll was exacted against ordinary people.<\/p>\n

The deaths of at least 34 people made it the worst single attack on civilians in Ukraine this year. But the most Donald Trump would say was that he had been told it was a \u201cmistake\u201d. It appears unlikely he will take up Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s invitation, issued yesterday, to visit Ukraine<\/a> and see the consequences of the invasion for himself.<\/p>\n

If Trump\u2019s attention appears to have shifted decisively on to his global tariff war, the consequences of his passivity on Russian aggression are becoming more and more obvious in Ukraine<\/a>. For today\u2019s newsletter, I spoke to Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding<\/strong> in Kyiv about an appalling new pattern in Russian attacks, and what they have revealed about the limits on the White House\u2019s commitment to peace. Here are the headlines.<\/p>\n

Five big stories<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    British Steel<\/strong> | Senior Labour figures have urged the government to review Chinese investment in UK infrastructure<\/a> in the wake of the British Steel crisis. Downing Street and the Treasury said they believed the row to be an isolated commercial dispute, even though the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has not ruled out deliberate Chinese sabotage of the Scunthorpe plant.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Sudan<\/strong> | Sudan is suffering from the largest humanitarian crisis globally and its civilians are continuing to pay the price for inaction by the international community, NGOs and the UN have said<\/a>, as the country\u2019s civil war enters its third year. The UK is hosting ministers from 20 countries in London on Tuesday in an attempt to restart stalled peace talks.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Politics<\/strong> | The former Conservative MP Craig Williams is among 15 people, including several other senior Tories, charged by the Gambling Commission<\/a> for alleged cheating connected to bets based on the date of the 2024 UK general election.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    UK news<\/strong> | Bin workers have \u201coverwhelmingly\u201d rejected a deal<\/a> that would have ended an all-out strike in Birmingham, during which bin bags have piled up in the streets and the city has faced an influx of rats.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Space<\/strong> | Six women safely completed a trip<\/a> to the edge of outer space on a rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos, the Amazon co-founder. The crew included Bezos\u2019s fiancee, Lauren S\u00e1nchez, and the pop star Katy Perry, who said on landing that she was \u201creally feeling that divine feminine right now\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In depth: \u2018America either wants Russia to win, or doesn\u2019t care if Ukraine loses\u2019A rescue worker rests near a university building hit in the Russian missile strike on Sumy. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka\/AP<\/p>\n

    The Russian ballistic missiles hit Sumy at about 10.15 local time on Sunday morning. The city centre was busy with civilians, many of them celebrating Palm Sunday or waiting for a theatre performance. University buildings, homes and a church were among those hit by the two strikes; a crowded bus was also hit, the Kyiv Independent reported<\/a>. At least 34 people, including two children, were killed, with another 117 injured.<\/p>\n

    What made the attack so egregious?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    A military awards ceremony was reportedly under way in Sumy at the time the missiles hit, and Russia<\/a> claimed that it had hit a meeting of Ukrainian military leaders. But video and eyewitness evidence suggests this was an attack whose victims were overwhelmingly civilians, with no serious military purpose to the bombing.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThese were civilians doing normal things on a Sunday morning,\u201d Luke Harding said. \u201cGoing to church, going to the shops, using public transport. This isn\u2019t the frontline or a tank factory. It\u2019s like aiming a missile at a British high street.\u201d Germany\u2019s incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, described the attack<\/a> as a \u201cdeliberate and calculated war crime\u201d, citing reports that the second missile struck as emergency workers attended to victims of the first.<\/p>\n

    Ukrainian officials said the second missile appeared to have been filled with cluster munitions \u2013 explosives that are dispersed in the air over a large area and are particularly deadly for civilians. They are banned by many countries under an international convention because of their indiscriminate impact but have been used extensively by Russia<\/a> (and to a lesser extent by Ukraine) during the conflict.<\/p>\n

    Civilians in Sumy are acutely vulnerable to ballistic missile attack, because of the speed with which the missiles arrive. \u201cIt\u2019s about a 15-minute drive from the Russian border,\u201d Luke said. \u201cIn Kyiv, you get a bit of warning, you can decide whether to take yourself underground. But there\u2019s no air raid siren somewhere like Sumy \u2013 the thing just lands. You can\u2019t hide or fling yourself behind cover \u2013 it\u2019s a gruesome game of roulette.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Is the attack part of a wider pattern?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Last week, a Russian missile hit<\/a> in Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s home city of Kryvyi Rih, killing 19 people including nine children. Again, Russia said that it had launched a \u201cprecision strike\u201d against a meeting of soldiers and western military instructors at a restaurant, but the bomb hit within a short distance of a playground.<\/p>\n

    Ukrainian civilian casualties have steadily increased throughout the war, and have risen sharply since ceasefire talks brokered by the US began last month, the United Nations said<\/a>, with 164 dead and 910 injured \u2013 rising 50% in March against February and 71% against the same month last year. The UN also said that loitering munitions \u2013 single-use warheads also known as kamikaze drones, designed to hover over potential targets until the optimal opportunity to strike \u2013 struck three hospitals in the same period, adding that because multiple drones hit the hospitals they may have been deliberately targeted.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt is an appalling pattern,\u201d Luke said. \u201cEvery week there is a strike like this. We can expect these attacks to continue, and in another week or two weeks we\u2019ll be talking about the same thing somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Why is Russia doing it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In this analysis piece<\/a>, Guardian defence editor Dan Sabbagh writes that \u201ca daytime city-centre attack, in the full knowledge that civilians will be present, reflects a Russian culture of impunity that has been allowed to endure without effective challenge\u201d. And while Russia generally insists that such attacks are carried out with some military target in mind, the real purpose is straightforward, Luke said. \u201cThe overall strategy now is to immiserate Ukrainians, to the point where they say: we can\u2019t beat Russia, this is pointless. They want them to turn on their government and demand peace on any terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Higher proportions of Ukrainians support a negotiated end to the war<\/a> than in the early days, with larger numbers prepared to cede some territory to secure peace. But half of the country still says that no territory should be given up under any circumstances. The vast majority believe that Russia will not stop at the territory it already occupies.<\/p>\n

    There is very little support for any deal that threatens Ukraine\u2019s political independence. But that is what Vladimir Putin is referring to when he says<\/a> that the \u201croot causes\u201d of the crisis must be removed for a ceasefire to be viable \u2013 a commitment to Nato\u2019s future political \u201cneutrality\u201d, with the implication that regime change in Kyiv is a necessary condition.<\/p>\n

    \u201cI don\u2019t think they will succeed in turning Ukrainians against their government,\u201d Luke said. \u201cBut the message is cynical, and really rather chilling \u2013 we will continue this war, we are masters of the situation, we can kill civilians, and there is nothing you can do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

    How has the US reacted?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Donald Trump is now preoccupied with his chaotic tariff war \u2013 but the backdrop of the United States\u2019 new approach to the war in Ukraine remains the crucial context for Russia\u2019s recent actions. \u201cRussia is very confident that there will be no meaningful response from Trump, whatever they do,\u201d Luke said.<\/p>\n

    After the Kryvyi Rih attack, US ambassador Bridget Brink did not ascribe blame to Russia, simply saying that \u201ca ballistic missile struck\u201d. Brink, who has been in post for three years and is viewed as a staunch advocate for US military assistance to Kyiv, has since announced that she is stepping down, and condemned the Sumy attack more clearly: \u201cRussia launched ballistic missiles on Sumy,\u201d she wrote on social media. \u201cReports indicate, as in Kryvyi Rih, cluster munitions were used, increasing the devastation and harm to civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Keith Kellogg, Trump\u2019s special envoy to Ukraine, was even clearer in his condemnation: \u201cToday\u2019s Palm Sunday attack by Russian forces on civilian targets in Sumy crosses any line of decency,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cIt is why President Trump is working hard to end this war.\u201d Trump himself would only say that he had been told that the Sumy strike was a \u201cmistake\u201d.<\/p>\n

    How should we interpret those messages?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The fact Brink has spoken more directly now that her departure has been announced tells its own story \u2013 while Kellogg appears to have been wholly marginalised. Much more significant was the fact that Steve Witkoff, officially Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy but apparently the man he trusts to deal with Moscow, met with Vladimir Putin for the third time this year on Friday. Reuters reported<\/a> that Witkoff told Trump the best way to secure a peace deal is to give Russia the Ukrainian land it has illegally annexed.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWitkoff seems more pro-Kremlin than the Kremlin,\u201d Luke said. \u201cThe truth is that America either wants Russia to win, or doesn\u2019t care if Ukraine loses. On a strategic level, they are much more concerned with a wide-ranging reset, covering Greenland, operations in the Arctic, space, sanctions relief for oligarchs, and mutual economic projects in which Ukraine is only a small file.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Some may still hope that Moscow\u2019s escalation of military operations might irk Trump to the extent that he changes course. But there is so far no evidence that that will happen, Luke said. \u201cWhen Trump came into office, there was a hope among some people close to Zelenskyy \u2013 by no means all of them \u2013 that it might be possible to persuade him that he should not accept being treated like a loser by Moscow. But it has become clear that that hope was an illusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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