US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania attend the funeral Mass of Pope Francis at the Vatican, 26 April 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/RICCARDO ANTIMIANI
Cities across Ukraine came under renewed attack overnight on Saturday, as Russia launched another barrage of drone strikes on the country, just hours after US President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to voice his suspicion that Vladimir Putin wasn’t actually serious about ending the war.
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along,” Trump wrote on Saturday.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday morning that 149 Russian drones had been used to target the Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Donetsk, Sumy and Cherkasy regions of the country overnight.
One person was killed and a 14-year-old girl was injured in the city of Pavlohrad, in central Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lisak reported, adding that another drone strike on an agricultural enterprise killed 500 cattle.
Trump’s comments followed talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday shortly before the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome. The encounter was the first time the two had met in person since the Ukrainian president’s ill-fated visit to the White House in February, which ended with Trump dressing him down and accusing him of “gambling with World War III” in front of the White House Press Corps.
On Friday, Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow for a fourth round of talks, which the Kremlin called “constructive and important”. According to Putin aide Yury Ushakov, Putin and Witkoff discussed the possibility of Russia and Ukraine resuming direct negotiations, which were abandoned in early 2022.
Trump acknowledged on Friday that the talks were “very fragile”, but had already warned that the US would halt its mediation efforts if the two sides did not come to an agreement soon.
