Zelensky says ‘position unchanged’ on Crimea after Trump says it will stay with Russia
We’re pausing our live coverage now but here’s the latest on the ongoing diplomatic talks aimed at bringing peace in Ukraine, as well as the latest developments in the war:
Zelensky on Crimea: The Ukrainian president says the southern Ukrainian peninsula – which Russia illegally annexed in 2014 – belongs to Ukraine. It follows comments from US President Donald Trump to Time magazine that “Crimea will stay with Russia”.
US-Russia meeting: Talks between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin in Moscow today have been “constructive”, says Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov. The meeting lasted three hours and they discussed the possibility of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
‘I haven’t slept for two days’: Kharkiv residents reel from Russian attacks
Exhausted residents point out latest drone strike came hours after Donald Trump’s rare rebuke to Vladimir Putin
About 1am on Friday, Yuliia Verbytska woke to the sound of an air raid siren. She grabbed her teenage children – Dmitry, 17, and Olexiy, 12 – and sat in the corridor, checking her phone. In the sky above came an ominous whine. Minutes later, a Russian drone crashed into the disused soap factory down the road in Polyova Street. There was an enormous explosion.
“We don’t have a shelter in our building, so we hide behind two concrete walls. All the neighbours sit together. You wonder if this is your last moment,” she said. Friday’s raid followed a massive attack on Thursday on Verbytska’s home, Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, and on the capital, Kyiv, where 12 people were killed. “I haven’t slept for two days,” she said wearily.
Exhausted residents sweeping up glass and fixing broken panels pointed out that the latest attack came hours after a post from Donald Trump on social media. It said: “Vladimir, STOP.” Russia’s president, it seemed, had decided to ignore Trump’s rare rebuke. Despite peace negotiations and an appeal by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a month-long ceasefire, the Russians were bombing as usual.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 66 ballistic and cruise missiles, four plane-launched air-to-surface missiles and 145 Shahed and decoy drones at Kyiv and four other regions of Ukraine. Rescue workers with flashlights searched the charred rubble of partly collapsed homes as the blue lights of emergency vehicles lit up the dark city streets.
The attack came as weeks of peace negotiations appeared to be culminating without an agreement in sight and hours after Trump lashed out at Zelenskyy. Trump accused him of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to surrender the Russia-occupied Crimea Peninsula as part of a possible deal.
Later Thursday during an Oval Office meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump said that Crimea was taken from Ukraine without a fight. He also noted that the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula happened under President Barack Obama’s watch.
