Trump has a deep grudge against Zelensky – but he’s now taken it further than ever before
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile attack in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine (AFP/Getty)
Zelensky was not president when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. He was elected by a landslide in 2019. Russia launched its attempt to kill him, capture Kyiv, and colonise Ukraine in February 2022.
He didn’t start the war with Russia – and wasn’t president when Ukraine enshrined the goal of Nato membership in its 2018 constitution.
Zelensky did, however, earn Trump’s anger by being a disloyal recipient of America’s largesse, mostly financial aid, for failing to open an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business deals in Ukraine in July 2019. Joe Biden was the likely Democrat candidate in the election of 2020.
Back then, Trump was impeached by Congress over his alleged threat to withhold $400m in US military aid to Ukraine unless Zelensky helped with the campaign against Biden and other anti-Democrat operations.
Trump was cleared by the Senate but the damage had been done. He bears a deep grudge against Zelensky.
But Trump was already a Russian strategic partner. His relationship with Moscow goes back to 1987 when he made his first trip to the capital of the Soviet Union to scout for investment opportunities. He didn’t ever do any deals in Russia. But Russian bankers have backed some of his enterprises since.
Trump has always been sloppy with state secrets since his first term in office. His top intelligence staff have risked easy penetration by foreign spies because they’ve been using their personal phones for top-secret communications.
Zelensky featured on Sunday’s CBS episode of ‘60 Minutes’ and called for Trump to see his war-torn country for himself (CBS News/60 Minutes/YouTube)
“I believe, sadly, [that] Russian narratives are prevailing in the US,” said Zelensky in an interview with CBS at the weekend.
“How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering, to understand what the Russians are doing, and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war? This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia's information policy on America, on US politics and US politicians.”
That may cost him dearly.
When Trump ranted at Zelensky in March during the Ukrainian president’s official visit to the Oval Office, Trump reiterated how deeply loyal he felt to Putin because the Russian president had been accused of backing his candidacy in 2016.
“Let me tell ya, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me – we went through a phoney witch hunt when they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia,” Trump raged, as he got increasingly incoherent during the attack.
“That was a phoney Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam. And [Putin] had to go through that. And he did go through it. We didn‘t end up in a war. And he went through it.”
This gobbledygook makes little sense. It does, however, reveal the depth of his feelings for Putin who, at least since 2016, he has seen as sharing a trench with The Donald in the wider campaign to undermine the American oligarch.
Trump and Zelensky’s meeting in the White House in March descended into a shouting match (Getty)
Trump soon suspended military aid and then intelligence sharing with Kyiv after the Oval Office row, which coincided with Putin’s campaign to free the Kursk region captured by Ukraine in Russia last year.
Trump has turned America’s system of alliances with the West upside down and inside out.
His evisceration of America’s security establishment with ideological purges, attacks on the US judiciary, Federal bureaucracy, the education system and the constitution itself have been combined with a wholesale trashing of Washington’s soft power and humanitarian operations.
This all serves the interests of the Kremlin. It’s Making Moscow Great Again.
A former KGB chief, Putin has reinforced his relationship with Trump by stroking his vanity. He’s relentless in his cultivation of the US president.
In his most recent effort, he sent a portrait of the US president painted in Russia to the White House in the care of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s chief Ukraine negotiator.
Witkoff said his boss thought the painting was “beautiful”. The bad news is that Trump’s narcissism is Russia’s greatest strategic asset.
Sam Kiley
Tue, April 15, 2025
THE INDEPENDENT UK
What could possess Donald Trump to victim-shame Ukraine’s president and endorse the actions of an indicted war criminal by backing Vladimir Putin? Personal hatred of Volodymyr Zelensky? A near-demented obsession with personal sleight? A radical strategic vision that’s upended world affairs? Something worse?
Probably.
Soon after the massacre in Sumy, where two Iskander missiles slammed into the provincial Ukrainian capital killing 35 people, including two children, Trump sloughed off the atrocity by claiming it had been a Russian mistake. Shocking, but not surprising, as Trump has consistently taken the Russian side at every opportunity this year.
Before most of the bodies could be collected from the city morgue, though, he had gone on the offensive by doubling down on his efforts to pin Ukraine’s suffering on its president.
“When you start a war, you got to know you can win,” he said of Ukraine’s leader.
Tue, April 15, 2025
THE INDEPENDENT UK
What could possess Donald Trump to victim-shame Ukraine’s president and endorse the actions of an indicted war criminal by backing Vladimir Putin? Personal hatred of Volodymyr Zelensky? A near-demented obsession with personal sleight? A radical strategic vision that’s upended world affairs? Something worse?
Probably.
Soon after the massacre in Sumy, where two Iskander missiles slammed into the provincial Ukrainian capital killing 35 people, including two children, Trump sloughed off the atrocity by claiming it had been a Russian mistake. Shocking, but not surprising, as Trump has consistently taken the Russian side at every opportunity this year.
Before most of the bodies could be collected from the city morgue, though, he had gone on the offensive by doubling down on his efforts to pin Ukraine’s suffering on its president.
“When you start a war, you got to know you can win,” he said of Ukraine’s leader.
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile attack in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine (AFP/Getty)
Zelensky was not president when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. He was elected by a landslide in 2019. Russia launched its attempt to kill him, capture Kyiv, and colonise Ukraine in February 2022.
He didn’t start the war with Russia – and wasn’t president when Ukraine enshrined the goal of Nato membership in its 2018 constitution.
Zelensky did, however, earn Trump’s anger by being a disloyal recipient of America’s largesse, mostly financial aid, for failing to open an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business deals in Ukraine in July 2019. Joe Biden was the likely Democrat candidate in the election of 2020.
Back then, Trump was impeached by Congress over his alleged threat to withhold $400m in US military aid to Ukraine unless Zelensky helped with the campaign against Biden and other anti-Democrat operations.
Trump was cleared by the Senate but the damage had been done. He bears a deep grudge against Zelensky.
But Trump was already a Russian strategic partner. His relationship with Moscow goes back to 1987 when he made his first trip to the capital of the Soviet Union to scout for investment opportunities. He didn’t ever do any deals in Russia. But Russian bankers have backed some of his enterprises since.
Trump has always been sloppy with state secrets since his first term in office. His top intelligence staff have risked easy penetration by foreign spies because they’ve been using their personal phones for top-secret communications.
So it is reasonable to assume that America’s adversaries, like Russia, have deep knowledge and understanding of every aspect of the 47th president’s life – and have done so for decades.
He supports Russian G7/8 membership. He refused to put tariffs on Moscow this month. He has adopted every one of Russia’s initial negotiating principles as his own when it comes to Ukraine, and said he thought that the country may anyway “be Russian one day”. He wants to get back into doing business with Russia too.
But he went further into the realms of bully-backing with his statement on Monday that “you don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you missiles”.
Again, Zelensky didn’t start the war. The US, the UK, Russia and Ukraine signed a memorandum in Budapest guaranteeing Kyiv security after Ukraine gave up its nuclear missiles in 1994. France and China backed the Budapest memo with their own document.
Ukraine, a Western democracy with ambitions to join the European Union, is a sovereign nation that Putin has said he wants to bring back into the post-Soviet Russian empire. Putin has also said he has designs on the Baltic states, Moldova, and Romania.
Support for Ukraine is a necessary condition of Europe’s defence. America’s network of allies in Nato and beyond has been the weft of Washington’s tapestry of alliances that has made it a global superpower.
To Trump, though, it’s getting in the way of turning the world into spheres of influence in which the US, Russia, and China carve up the planet. That’s also, by the way, Putin’s vision
He supports Russian G7/8 membership. He refused to put tariffs on Moscow this month. He has adopted every one of Russia’s initial negotiating principles as his own when it comes to Ukraine, and said he thought that the country may anyway “be Russian one day”. He wants to get back into doing business with Russia too.
But he went further into the realms of bully-backing with his statement on Monday that “you don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you missiles”.
Again, Zelensky didn’t start the war. The US, the UK, Russia and Ukraine signed a memorandum in Budapest guaranteeing Kyiv security after Ukraine gave up its nuclear missiles in 1994. France and China backed the Budapest memo with their own document.
Ukraine, a Western democracy with ambitions to join the European Union, is a sovereign nation that Putin has said he wants to bring back into the post-Soviet Russian empire. Putin has also said he has designs on the Baltic states, Moldova, and Romania.
Support for Ukraine is a necessary condition of Europe’s defence. America’s network of allies in Nato and beyond has been the weft of Washington’s tapestry of alliances that has made it a global superpower.
To Trump, though, it’s getting in the way of turning the world into spheres of influence in which the US, Russia, and China carve up the planet. That’s also, by the way, Putin’s vision
Zelensky featured on Sunday’s CBS episode of ‘60 Minutes’ and called for Trump to see his war-torn country for himself (CBS News/60 Minutes/YouTube)
“I believe, sadly, [that] Russian narratives are prevailing in the US,” said Zelensky in an interview with CBS at the weekend.
“How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering, to understand what the Russians are doing, and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war? This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia's information policy on America, on US politics and US politicians.”
That may cost him dearly.
When Trump ranted at Zelensky in March during the Ukrainian president’s official visit to the Oval Office, Trump reiterated how deeply loyal he felt to Putin because the Russian president had been accused of backing his candidacy in 2016.
“Let me tell ya, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me – we went through a phoney witch hunt when they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia,” Trump raged, as he got increasingly incoherent during the attack.
“That was a phoney Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam. And [Putin] had to go through that. And he did go through it. We didn‘t end up in a war. And he went through it.”
This gobbledygook makes little sense. It does, however, reveal the depth of his feelings for Putin who, at least since 2016, he has seen as sharing a trench with The Donald in the wider campaign to undermine the American oligarch.
Trump and Zelensky’s meeting in the White House in March descended into a shouting match (Getty)
Trump soon suspended military aid and then intelligence sharing with Kyiv after the Oval Office row, which coincided with Putin’s campaign to free the Kursk region captured by Ukraine in Russia last year.
Trump has turned America’s system of alliances with the West upside down and inside out.
His evisceration of America’s security establishment with ideological purges, attacks on the US judiciary, Federal bureaucracy, the education system and the constitution itself have been combined with a wholesale trashing of Washington’s soft power and humanitarian operations.
This all serves the interests of the Kremlin. It’s Making Moscow Great Again.
A former KGB chief, Putin has reinforced his relationship with Trump by stroking his vanity. He’s relentless in his cultivation of the US president.
In his most recent effort, he sent a portrait of the US president painted in Russia to the White House in the care of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s chief Ukraine negotiator.
Witkoff said his boss thought the painting was “beautiful”. The bad news is that Trump’s narcissism is Russia’s greatest strategic asset.
BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DOES
Yang Tian & Ian Aikman - BBC News
Tue, April 15, 2025
The US president's comments follow the deadliest strike on civilians in Ukraine this year - an attack which Trump described as a 'mistake' [Getty Images]
Donald Trump has again blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war with Russia – a day after a major Russian attack killed 35 people and injured 117 others in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
The US president said Ukraine's leader shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the "millions of people dead" in the conflict.
"You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles," he said at the White House on Monday.
His comments followed Russia's strike on Sumy on Sunday - the deadliest attack on civilians this year. Moscow also hit the city's outskirts on Monday night.
Nato's secretary general Mark Rutte went to Ukraine on Tuesday in a show of solidarity with Kyiv following the missile strikes.
Joining Zelensky in Odesa, Rutte condemned the "terrible pattern" of attacks on civilians and said "Russia is the aggressor, Russia started this war, there's no doubt".
Trump on Monday had first described the Sumy attack as "terrible" but said he had been told Russia had "made a mistake". He did not give further detail.
Moscow said it had targeted a meeting of Ukrainian soldiers, killing 60 of them, but did not provide any evidence.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media reported that there had been a medal ceremony for military veterans in the city on the day of the attack. Zelensky sacked Sumy's regional chief on Tuesday, for allegedly hosting the event, local media reported.
Trump on Monday also blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for the war's casualties- which are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, not the millions he's claimed.
"Millions of people dead because of three people," Trump had said. "Let's say Putin number one, let's say Biden who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky.
Questioning Zelensky's competence, he said the Ukrainian leader was "always looking to purchase missiles".
"When you start a war, you got to know you can win," the US president said.
Trump has repeatedly blamed Zelensky and Biden for the war, despite Russia invading Ukraine first in 2014, five years before Zelensky won the presidency, and then launching a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump further argued on Monday that "Biden could have stopped it and Zelensky could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it. Everybody is to blame".
Tensions between Trump and Zelensky have been high since a heated confrontation at the White House in February, where the US leader chided Ukraine's president for not starting peace talks with Russia earlier.
By contrast, Trump has taken action to drastically improve relations with Moscow.
Trump's administration has sought to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine and has held negotiations with Moscow that have cut out Kyiv.
Trump said he had a "great" phone call with Putin last month, and the Russian president sent him a portrait as a gift a week later.
In February, Washington voted with Moscow against a UN resolution that identified Russia as the "aggressor" in Russia's war against Ukraine.
After talks between US and Russian officials failed to produce a ceasefire in Ukraine, Trump said he was "very angry" with Putin, though he added he had a "good relationship" with the Russian leader.
Rosenberg: Trump takes US-Russia relations on rollercoaster ride
US envoy Steve Witkoff, who met Putin in St Petersburg for close to five hours on Friday, called his meeting "compelling".
He said the Russian leader's request had been to get "a permanent peace... beyond a ceasefire".
The detailed discussions had included the future of five Ukrainian territories Russia is claiming to have annexed since it launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbour and "no Nato, Article 5" – referring to the Nato rule that says members will come to the defence of an ally that is under attack.
"I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large," Witkoff told Fox News on Monday.
"There is a possibility to reshape the Russian-United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities that I think give real stability to the region, too. Partnerships create stability," Trump's envoy said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was less effusive, describing the contacts as positive but with no clear outlines of an agreement.
In an interview recorded before Russia's deadly attack on Sumy, Zelensky had urged Trump to visit Ukraine before striking a deal with Putin to end the war.
"Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead," Zelensky said in an interview for CBS's 60 Minutes programme.
At least 35 people were killed when Russian forces fired two Iskander missiles into the heart of Sumy on Sunday.
The blasts took place minutes apart while many civilians were heading to church for Palm Sunday, a week before Easter.
A bus was destroyed in the attack and bodies were left strewn in the middle of a city street. Ukainian and US officials have asserted that cluster munitions may have been used.
No casualties were reproted from Moscow's strike on the outskirts of Sumy on Monday night.
Ukraine's military on Tuesday said it had struck a base belonging to the Russian rocket brigade that conducted Sunday's missile attack on Sumy.
Russia's conflict in Ukraine goes back more than a decade, to 2014, when Kyiv's pro-Russian president was overthrown. Russia then annexed Crimea and backed insurgents in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Vance says 'you have to try to understand' both sides
Trump blames Biden and Zelensky for war in Ukraine
DPA
Mon, April 14, 2025
US President Donald Trump has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his predecessor Joe Biden of being responsible for the war in Ukraine.
Trump criticized Zelensky for wanting US missiles, stating: "Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right? You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size. And then hope that people give you some missiles."
Trump had earlier expressed a different view during a reception for Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at the White House, acknowledging that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not without fault. He stated that Zelensky, Biden and Putin all share blame for the conflict. "Everybody's is to blame," Trump remarked.
Trump's focus was primarily on Zelensky, whom he had met at the White House in late February, where he publicly reprimanded him alongside Vice President JD Vance.
Reflecting on the meeting, Trump said, "We had a rough session with this guy over here. He just kept asking for more and more."
Prior to the meeting, Trump had already accused Zelensky and Biden on the Truth Social platform of failing to prevent the war in Ukraine, writing, "President Zelensky and the corrupt Joe Biden did an absolutely terrible job in allowing this farce to begin."
Putin had ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
Trump is advocating for an end to the war and maintains close contact with the Kremlin through his special envoy Steve Witkoff.
His administration envisions a deal to end the war that aligns with Moscow's interests, suggesting that Ukraine should abandon its pursuit of NATO membership and that US soldiers should not be part of a potential peacekeeping force.
Zelensky recently commented that the Russian perspective on the war has strongly influenced the US government, and earlier in the day he implored Trump to visit his country and witness some of the tragedy of the current war before committing to any purported peace solutions with Russia.
Mindful of his abrasive meeting with the US leader in Washington in February, Zelensky reiterated his respect for the US position.
"But please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead," Zelensky told US broadcaster CBS in an interview released on Sunday.
He hoped that Trump would then understand what he was dealing with, he said.
"You will understand what Putin did," he said.
CBS recorded the interview with Zelensky during a visit to his home city of Kryvyi Rih. A Russian missile attack there on April 4 killed 19 people, including nine children and teenagers.
Russian strikes on Ukrainian city of Sumy kill 35, in deadliest attack this year
Strikes on Palm Sunday
The strikes hit the city center on Palm Sunday as residents were attending church services on one of the busiest church-going days of the year, according to Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Natalia Pihul, a 52-year-old Sumy resident, told Reuters that her mother was hospitalized after suffering a head injury.
“(My mother) was in the kitchen cooking some food, lunch … A cupboard was right here, now it lies here on the floor. It fell and its doors cut her head,” she said as she walked around her mother’s damaged apartment.
The explosion blew out the unit’s window frames, scattering glass shards all across the kitchen and living room. Outside the building, footage from Reuters showed charred vehicles next to piles of rubble and personal belongings littering the street.
“Where is a military base here? Where is it? Please have a look. A woman lived here. Look at this! How is this even possible? It is unacceptable,” Pihul said.
A total of 20 buildings were damaged, including apartments, cafes, shops and the district court, Zelensky later wrote on X.
Of the more than 100 people wounded in the attack, he said 68 were in hospitals, eight of whom were in serious condition.
Volodymyr Artyukh, head of the military administration in the region, said that “at that time, a lot of people were on the street.”
“The enemy was hoping to inflict the greatest damage on people in the city of Sumy,” Artyuk added.
The attack is also the worst single attack on Ukrainian civilians since 2023, when 51 people were killed in strikes on Kupiansk.
Footage from the scene shows destroyed buildings, blown-out windows and piles of rubble in the Sumy city center. Bodies covered in emergency blankets can be seen on the ground.
Two men comfort each other as Ukrainian police psychologists provide assistance to local residents. - Oleg Voronenko/AFP via Getty Images
The city center in the aftermath of the Russia's missile attack. - AP
CNN has verified social media videos of the moment the strike hit Sumy. A loud noise can be heard as large plumes of black smoke rise in the air.
Video shared by the region’s military administration also registers a loud boom, showing the moment a Russian missile hit a building. Emergency sirens can be heard as people run in panic, while others can be seen lying on the ground.
The face of one woman being helped is covered in blood in a different video shared by Zelensky. Footage also shows body bags on the ground and a blown-out trolleybus that appears to have bodies inside, as emergency workers respond to the attack.
Artyukh, the head of the military administration, later said that most people on the trolleybus were killed.
Global condemnation
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, called the incident a “horrific example of Russia intensifying attacks while Ukraine has accepted an unconditional ceasefire.” French President Emmanuel Macron also reacted, saying “strong measures” are needed to impose a ceasefire.
“It’s been two months since Putin ignored America’s proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire,” Zelensky said Sunday, referring to Ukraine’s acceptance of a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States in March, which Russia refused.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio extended condolences to victims of the “horrifying Russian missile attack.”
Speaking to CBS News’ “60 Minutes” in an interview published Sunday, Zelensky said he believes that “Russian narratives are prevailing in the US.”
“How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering, to understand what the Russians are doing, and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war?” he said.
“This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia’s information policy on America, on US politics, and US politicians.”
The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Matthias Schmale condemned the strike on Sumy’s city center “in the strongest possible terms” and noted that international humanitarian law “strictly prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Russia has increased air attacks and missile strikes on the Sumy region in recent weeks as it has pushed Ukrainian forces out of much of the adjoining Russian territory of Kursk. Its forces have also occupied a few small settlements just inside the Sumy region.
Over the past 24 hours, other Russian attacks in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions killed eight people and wounded at least 18.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed reporting.
HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY
Tue, April 15, 2025
WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump accused Ukraine of inviting Russia's assault again, arguing that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is responsible for the war that Moscow started three years ago.
The war began in 2022 when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a military invasion of Ukraine. But during an Oval Office meeting on April 14 with El Salvador's president, Trump said: "Everybody's to blame."
Trump criticized former President Joe Biden and Zelenskyy as not "competent" after a journalist asked about Russia's attack the day before on Sumy. The missile strike in the northeastern city killed 35 people and wounded 117 more, according to the Ukrainian government.
Trump told reporters on April 13 that the strike was a "mistake." But when pressed on the matter the next day, the U.S. president said that the mistake he was referring to came from Biden and Zelenskyy, whom he accused of failing to prevent Putin's invasion.
"He's always looking to purchase missiles," Trump said of Zelenskyy. "When you start a war, you've got to know that you can win the war, right? You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles."
Trump also blamed Ukraine for the war in February before an Oval Office dispute with Zelenskyy that led to a breakdown in talks between the two countries. Trump said then that Zelenskyy should have proactively kept Putin, who violated a ceasefire agreement with the invasion, from launching a war on Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance walk to welcome the Ohio State University 2025 College Football National Champions, at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 14, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn HocksteinMore
"You’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it. Three years. You should have never started it,” Trump said then.
The countries have since resumed negotiations, with Ukraine agreeing to the terms of a U.S.-led temporary ceasefire with Russia in March. Russia had since tried to renegotiate the parameters of arrangement, which was never implemented.
In a social media post on April 14, Zelenskyy said that Russia, as the aggressor in the war, should be forced into peace talks.
"We all want this to end. Peace is needed – and it must be lasting," he said. "We are not just ready for peace quickly – Ukraine has never wanted this war, not for a single second."
(This story has been updated with more information.)
Yang Tian & Ian Aikman - BBC News
Tue, April 15, 2025
The US president's comments follow the deadliest strike on civilians in Ukraine this year - an attack which Trump described as a 'mistake' [Getty Images]
Donald Trump has again blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war with Russia – a day after a major Russian attack killed 35 people and injured 117 others in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
The US president said Ukraine's leader shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the "millions of people dead" in the conflict.
"You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles," he said at the White House on Monday.
His comments followed Russia's strike on Sumy on Sunday - the deadliest attack on civilians this year. Moscow also hit the city's outskirts on Monday night.
Nato's secretary general Mark Rutte went to Ukraine on Tuesday in a show of solidarity with Kyiv following the missile strikes.
Joining Zelensky in Odesa, Rutte condemned the "terrible pattern" of attacks on civilians and said "Russia is the aggressor, Russia started this war, there's no doubt".
Trump on Monday had first described the Sumy attack as "terrible" but said he had been told Russia had "made a mistake". He did not give further detail.
Moscow said it had targeted a meeting of Ukrainian soldiers, killing 60 of them, but did not provide any evidence.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media reported that there had been a medal ceremony for military veterans in the city on the day of the attack. Zelensky sacked Sumy's regional chief on Tuesday, for allegedly hosting the event, local media reported.
Trump on Monday also blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for the war's casualties- which are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, not the millions he's claimed.
"Millions of people dead because of three people," Trump had said. "Let's say Putin number one, let's say Biden who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky.
Questioning Zelensky's competence, he said the Ukrainian leader was "always looking to purchase missiles".
"When you start a war, you got to know you can win," the US president said.
Trump has repeatedly blamed Zelensky and Biden for the war, despite Russia invading Ukraine first in 2014, five years before Zelensky won the presidency, and then launching a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump further argued on Monday that "Biden could have stopped it and Zelensky could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it. Everybody is to blame".
Tensions between Trump and Zelensky have been high since a heated confrontation at the White House in February, where the US leader chided Ukraine's president for not starting peace talks with Russia earlier.
By contrast, Trump has taken action to drastically improve relations with Moscow.
Trump's administration has sought to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine and has held negotiations with Moscow that have cut out Kyiv.
Trump said he had a "great" phone call with Putin last month, and the Russian president sent him a portrait as a gift a week later.
In February, Washington voted with Moscow against a UN resolution that identified Russia as the "aggressor" in Russia's war against Ukraine.
After talks between US and Russian officials failed to produce a ceasefire in Ukraine, Trump said he was "very angry" with Putin, though he added he had a "good relationship" with the Russian leader.
Rosenberg: Trump takes US-Russia relations on rollercoaster ride
US envoy Steve Witkoff, who met Putin in St Petersburg for close to five hours on Friday, called his meeting "compelling".
He said the Russian leader's request had been to get "a permanent peace... beyond a ceasefire".
The detailed discussions had included the future of five Ukrainian territories Russia is claiming to have annexed since it launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbour and "no Nato, Article 5" – referring to the Nato rule that says members will come to the defence of an ally that is under attack.
"I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large," Witkoff told Fox News on Monday.
"There is a possibility to reshape the Russian-United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities that I think give real stability to the region, too. Partnerships create stability," Trump's envoy said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was less effusive, describing the contacts as positive but with no clear outlines of an agreement.
In an interview recorded before Russia's deadly attack on Sumy, Zelensky had urged Trump to visit Ukraine before striking a deal with Putin to end the war.
"Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead," Zelensky said in an interview for CBS's 60 Minutes programme.
At least 35 people were killed when Russian forces fired two Iskander missiles into the heart of Sumy on Sunday.
The blasts took place minutes apart while many civilians were heading to church for Palm Sunday, a week before Easter.
A bus was destroyed in the attack and bodies were left strewn in the middle of a city street. Ukainian and US officials have asserted that cluster munitions may have been used.
No casualties were reproted from Moscow's strike on the outskirts of Sumy on Monday night.
Ukraine's military on Tuesday said it had struck a base belonging to the Russian rocket brigade that conducted Sunday's missile attack on Sumy.
Russia's conflict in Ukraine goes back more than a decade, to 2014, when Kyiv's pro-Russian president was overthrown. Russia then annexed Crimea and backed insurgents in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Vance says 'you have to try to understand' both sides
Trump blames Biden and Zelensky for war in Ukraine
DPA
Mon, April 14, 2025
US President Donald Trump has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his predecessor Joe Biden of being responsible for the war in Ukraine.
Trump criticized Zelensky for wanting US missiles, stating: "Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right? You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size. And then hope that people give you some missiles."
Trump had earlier expressed a different view during a reception for Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at the White House, acknowledging that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not without fault. He stated that Zelensky, Biden and Putin all share blame for the conflict. "Everybody's is to blame," Trump remarked.
Trump's focus was primarily on Zelensky, whom he had met at the White House in late February, where he publicly reprimanded him alongside Vice President JD Vance.
Reflecting on the meeting, Trump said, "We had a rough session with this guy over here. He just kept asking for more and more."
Prior to the meeting, Trump had already accused Zelensky and Biden on the Truth Social platform of failing to prevent the war in Ukraine, writing, "President Zelensky and the corrupt Joe Biden did an absolutely terrible job in allowing this farce to begin."
Putin had ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
Trump is advocating for an end to the war and maintains close contact with the Kremlin through his special envoy Steve Witkoff.
His administration envisions a deal to end the war that aligns with Moscow's interests, suggesting that Ukraine should abandon its pursuit of NATO membership and that US soldiers should not be part of a potential peacekeeping force.
Zelensky recently commented that the Russian perspective on the war has strongly influenced the US government, and earlier in the day he implored Trump to visit his country and witness some of the tragedy of the current war before committing to any purported peace solutions with Russia.
Mindful of his abrasive meeting with the US leader in Washington in February, Zelensky reiterated his respect for the US position.
"But please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead," Zelensky told US broadcaster CBS in an interview released on Sunday.
He hoped that Trump would then understand what he was dealing with, he said.
"You will understand what Putin did," he said.
CBS recorded the interview with Zelensky during a visit to his home city of Kryvyi Rih. A Russian missile attack there on April 4 killed 19 people, including nine children and teenagers.
Russian strikes on Ukrainian city of Sumy kill 35, in deadliest attack this year
Svitlana Vlasova and Rosa Rahimi, CNN
Mon, April 14, 2025
Russian ballistic missiles ripped through the busy center of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy on Sunday, officials said, killing at least 35 people and striking terror into residents who were out enjoying Palm Sunday and attending morning church services.
It was the deadliest attack of the conflict this year. Two children were among the scores of people killed in the strikes on the city’s center, while 117 people were wounded, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were carried out by ballistic missiles; one hit a university building and another “exploded right over (a) street,” he said.
Zelensky also called for a “strong response from the world” to the attack, which came two days after top Trump administration official Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, with video showing the two warmly shaking hands before a four hour meeting.
Ukrainian officials said that preliminary information indicates cluster munitions were used in the attack. The second of the two explosions was described as being likely filled with munitions that “exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people,” according to the head of the region’s military administration.
“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war,” Zelensky said. “Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talking has never stopped ballistic missiles and bombs. We need to treat Russia as a terrorist deserves.”
When asked about the attack, Moscow maintained that the Russian military “strikes exclusively at military and near-military targets.”
“I can only repeat and remind you of the repeated statements of both our president (Vladimir Putin) and our army representatives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
The attacks targeted Ukrainian commanding officers, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Telegram. It claimed that Kyiv “continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield” by “holding events with the participation of military personnel in the center of a densely populated city.”
International condemnation of the strikes from Ukraine’s allies was swift.
The Trump administration’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg questioned the targeting of the attack, which he said “crosses any line of decency.”
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he was told Russia “made a mistake.”
“I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday. When asked to elaborate on Monday, Trump said: “the mistake was letting the war happen.”
While he acknowledged that Putin started the war against Ukraine, he also continued to cast blame on Zelensky and former US President Joe Biden. “When you start a war you got to know that you can win the war,” Trump said referring to Zelensky. “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
Mon, April 14, 2025
Russian ballistic missiles ripped through the busy center of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy on Sunday, officials said, killing at least 35 people and striking terror into residents who were out enjoying Palm Sunday and attending morning church services.
It was the deadliest attack of the conflict this year. Two children were among the scores of people killed in the strikes on the city’s center, while 117 people were wounded, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were carried out by ballistic missiles; one hit a university building and another “exploded right over (a) street,” he said.
Zelensky also called for a “strong response from the world” to the attack, which came two days after top Trump administration official Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, with video showing the two warmly shaking hands before a four hour meeting.
Ukrainian officials said that preliminary information indicates cluster munitions were used in the attack. The second of the two explosions was described as being likely filled with munitions that “exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people,” according to the head of the region’s military administration.
“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war,” Zelensky said. “Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talking has never stopped ballistic missiles and bombs. We need to treat Russia as a terrorist deserves.”
When asked about the attack, Moscow maintained that the Russian military “strikes exclusively at military and near-military targets.”
“I can only repeat and remind you of the repeated statements of both our president (Vladimir Putin) and our army representatives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
The attacks targeted Ukrainian commanding officers, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Telegram. It claimed that Kyiv “continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield” by “holding events with the participation of military personnel in the center of a densely populated city.”
International condemnation of the strikes from Ukraine’s allies was swift.
The Trump administration’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg questioned the targeting of the attack, which he said “crosses any line of decency.”
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he was told Russia “made a mistake.”
“I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday. When asked to elaborate on Monday, Trump said: “the mistake was letting the war happen.”
While he acknowledged that Putin started the war against Ukraine, he also continued to cast blame on Zelensky and former US President Joe Biden. “When you start a war you got to know that you can win the war,” Trump said referring to Zelensky. “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
Strikes on Palm Sunday
The strikes hit the city center on Palm Sunday as residents were attending church services on one of the busiest church-going days of the year, according to Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Natalia Pihul, a 52-year-old Sumy resident, told Reuters that her mother was hospitalized after suffering a head injury.
“(My mother) was in the kitchen cooking some food, lunch … A cupboard was right here, now it lies here on the floor. It fell and its doors cut her head,” she said as she walked around her mother’s damaged apartment.
The explosion blew out the unit’s window frames, scattering glass shards all across the kitchen and living room. Outside the building, footage from Reuters showed charred vehicles next to piles of rubble and personal belongings littering the street.
“Where is a military base here? Where is it? Please have a look. A woman lived here. Look at this! How is this even possible? It is unacceptable,” Pihul said.
A total of 20 buildings were damaged, including apartments, cafes, shops and the district court, Zelensky later wrote on X.
Of the more than 100 people wounded in the attack, he said 68 were in hospitals, eight of whom were in serious condition.
Volodymyr Artyukh, head of the military administration in the region, said that “at that time, a lot of people were on the street.”
“The enemy was hoping to inflict the greatest damage on people in the city of Sumy,” Artyuk added.
The attack is also the worst single attack on Ukrainian civilians since 2023, when 51 people were killed in strikes on Kupiansk.
Footage from the scene shows destroyed buildings, blown-out windows and piles of rubble in the Sumy city center. Bodies covered in emergency blankets can be seen on the ground.
Cluster munitions used, say Ukrainian officials
Cluster munitions contain multiple explosives that are released over a wide area – up to the size of several football fields – and are particularly dangerous to civilians when fired near populated areas.
“A missile with cluster munitions is something Russians do to kill as many civilians as possible,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, calling the strike a “deliberate targeting of civilians.”
It was a two-pronged attack, with the second of two missiles likely filled with munitions that “exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people” and caused large numbers of casualties, the head of the region’s military administration said. The second explosion happened about 200 meters from the site of the first, hitting an area with residential buildings, educational institutions and shops.
Sumy resident Iryna Pryykhodko told Reuters that the “first explosion was strong, but the second one was even stronger.”
“First, I saw shattered windows. Then, before the second strike, we took cover inside the residential building,” she said. “After the second strike, it was all covered with smoke and I could not see anything.”
Among those killed was Olena Kohut, an artist with the Sumy National Theatre’s orchestra, who died from her injuries in the attack. Liudmyla Hordiienko, a deputy head in the region’s state tax service, was also killed.
Cluster munitions contain multiple explosives that are released over a wide area – up to the size of several football fields – and are particularly dangerous to civilians when fired near populated areas.
“A missile with cluster munitions is something Russians do to kill as many civilians as possible,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, calling the strike a “deliberate targeting of civilians.”
It was a two-pronged attack, with the second of two missiles likely filled with munitions that “exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people” and caused large numbers of casualties, the head of the region’s military administration said. The second explosion happened about 200 meters from the site of the first, hitting an area with residential buildings, educational institutions and shops.
Sumy resident Iryna Pryykhodko told Reuters that the “first explosion was strong, but the second one was even stronger.”
“First, I saw shattered windows. Then, before the second strike, we took cover inside the residential building,” she said. “After the second strike, it was all covered with smoke and I could not see anything.”
Among those killed was Olena Kohut, an artist with the Sumy National Theatre’s orchestra, who died from her injuries in the attack. Liudmyla Hordiienko, a deputy head in the region’s state tax service, was also killed.
Two men comfort each other as Ukrainian police psychologists provide assistance to local residents. - Oleg Voronenko/AFP via Getty Images
The city center in the aftermath of the Russia's missile attack. - AP
CNN has verified social media videos of the moment the strike hit Sumy. A loud noise can be heard as large plumes of black smoke rise in the air.
Video shared by the region’s military administration also registers a loud boom, showing the moment a Russian missile hit a building. Emergency sirens can be heard as people run in panic, while others can be seen lying on the ground.
The face of one woman being helped is covered in blood in a different video shared by Zelensky. Footage also shows body bags on the ground and a blown-out trolleybus that appears to have bodies inside, as emergency workers respond to the attack.
Artyukh, the head of the military administration, later said that most people on the trolleybus were killed.
Global condemnation
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, called the incident a “horrific example of Russia intensifying attacks while Ukraine has accepted an unconditional ceasefire.” French President Emmanuel Macron also reacted, saying “strong measures” are needed to impose a ceasefire.
“It’s been two months since Putin ignored America’s proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire,” Zelensky said Sunday, referring to Ukraine’s acceptance of a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States in March, which Russia refused.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio extended condolences to victims of the “horrifying Russian missile attack.”
Speaking to CBS News’ “60 Minutes” in an interview published Sunday, Zelensky said he believes that “Russian narratives are prevailing in the US.”
“How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering, to understand what the Russians are doing, and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war?” he said.
“This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia’s information policy on America, on US politics, and US politicians.”
The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Matthias Schmale condemned the strike on Sumy’s city center “in the strongest possible terms” and noted that international humanitarian law “strictly prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Russia has increased air attacks and missile strikes on the Sumy region in recent weeks as it has pushed Ukrainian forces out of much of the adjoining Russian territory of Kursk. Its forces have also occupied a few small settlements just inside the Sumy region.
Over the past 24 hours, other Russian attacks in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions killed eight people and wounded at least 18.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed reporting.
HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
'Everybody's to blame': Trump accuses Zelenskyy of starting Russia's war on Ukraine
Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY
Tue, April 15, 2025
WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump accused Ukraine of inviting Russia's assault again, arguing that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is responsible for the war that Moscow started three years ago.
The war began in 2022 when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a military invasion of Ukraine. But during an Oval Office meeting on April 14 with El Salvador's president, Trump said: "Everybody's to blame."
Trump criticized former President Joe Biden and Zelenskyy as not "competent" after a journalist asked about Russia's attack the day before on Sumy. The missile strike in the northeastern city killed 35 people and wounded 117 more, according to the Ukrainian government.
Trump told reporters on April 13 that the strike was a "mistake." But when pressed on the matter the next day, the U.S. president said that the mistake he was referring to came from Biden and Zelenskyy, whom he accused of failing to prevent Putin's invasion.
"He's always looking to purchase missiles," Trump said of Zelenskyy. "When you start a war, you've got to know that you can win the war, right? You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles."
Trump also blamed Ukraine for the war in February before an Oval Office dispute with Zelenskyy that led to a breakdown in talks between the two countries. Trump said then that Zelenskyy should have proactively kept Putin, who violated a ceasefire agreement with the invasion, from launching a war on Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance walk to welcome the Ohio State University 2025 College Football National Champions, at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 14, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn HocksteinMore
"You’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it. Three years. You should have never started it,” Trump said then.
The countries have since resumed negotiations, with Ukraine agreeing to the terms of a U.S.-led temporary ceasefire with Russia in March. Russia had since tried to renegotiate the parameters of arrangement, which was never implemented.
In a social media post on April 14, Zelenskyy said that Russia, as the aggressor in the war, should be forced into peace talks.
"We all want this to end. Peace is needed – and it must be lasting," he said. "We are not just ready for peace quickly – Ukraine has never wanted this war, not for a single second."
(This story has been updated with more information.)
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