Donald Trump will tell Putin to stop the | Political News

President Donald Trump says he will communicate by telephone Monday with Russian chief Vladimir Putin about the battle in Ukraine.

Trump mentioned in a social media post Saturday that the subject will be “STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH,” referring to a recent drone attack that blew up a bus with civilians being evacuated from war-torn Ukraine.

The American president said he also then plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and members of NATO, reports the Associated Press.

“HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.

Trump’s declaration comes after a Russian drone assault on Ukraine and Putin being accused of knowingly killing civilians.

A Russian drone hit a bus evacuating civilians from a front-line space in Ukraine‘s northeastern Sumy area Saturday, killing 9 people, Ukrainian officers mentioned, hours after Moscow and Kyiv had held their first direct peace talks in years that failed to yield a ceasefire.

Seven people have been also injured in the assault in Bilopillia, a city around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Russia‘s border, three of them severely, according to native Gov. Oleh Hryhorov and Ukraine‘s national police.

The Associated Press could not independently confirm the report. There was no remark from Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the assault as “deliberate killing of civilians,” including in a post on Telegram messaging app that “Russians could scarcely not realize what kind of vehicle they were hitting.”

He lamented the missed opportunity from Friday’s peace talks, saying that “Ukraine has long proposed this – a full and unconditional ceasefire in order to save lives.”

He added: ”Russia only retains the skill to proceed killing.”

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British Foreign Secretary David Lammy mentioned he was “appalled” by the assault. “If Putin is severe about peace, Russia should agree to a full and quick ceasefire, as Ukraine has finished,” he wrote on X.

In Bilopillia, a period of mourning was declared through Monday. Local group chief Yurii Zarko known as the day “Black Saturday.” The injured have been taken to a hospital in Sumy, the regional capital.

The native media outlet Suspilne mentioned the passengers on the bus have been being evacuated from the city when the strike occurred. Authorities are working to establish some of the victims, most of them aged ladies.

Russia‘s protection ministry claimed its forces hit a navy staging space in the Sumy area on Saturday morning, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) southeast of Bilopillia, without mentioning any different assaults there.

According to a Washington-based assume tank, Ukrainian forces have been inching ahead into Russian territory in the Kursk area, just north of Bilopillia.

The Institute for the Study of War mentioned final week Ukrainian troops had superior south of the Russian border village of Tyotkino.

Russia mentioned final month that its forces had totally reclaimed the Kursk area, almost 9 months after a lightning incursion by Kyiv captured more than 100 settlements there and promised to hand Ukraine a bargaining chip in potential negotiations with the Kremlin. Ukrainian officers claimed combating in Kursk is ongoing.

Russian shelling, drones and airstrikes killed at least 5 different civilians on Friday and in a single day across Ukraine‘s Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson areas, according to native officers there.

Russian forces in a single day also launched 62 drones, Ukraine‘s air pressure reported. It mentioned 36 of the drones have been shot down and six more veered off track, possible due to digital jamming.

Russian and Ukrainian officers met Friday in Istanbul in an attempt to attain a momentary ceasefire, but the talks ended after much less than two hours without a breakthrough. It was the first face-to-face dialogue between the two sides since the early weeks of Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Hopes for a breakthrough have been dashed after Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned Zelenskyy’s offer to meet face-to-face in Turkey.

Putin’s no-show got here days after he himself proposed negotiations in Istanbul “without preconditions,” as an various to the “full and unconditional” ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies, including the U.S.

While both sides agreed on a giant prisoner swap, they remained far aside on key circumstances for ending the combating.

One such situation for Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, is a momentary ceasefire as a first step toward a peaceable settlement. The Kremlin has pushed back against such a truce, which stays elusive.

Zelenskyy mentioned he had mentioned the consequence of the Istanbul talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Poland. In a post on X from a European management assembly in Albania on Friday, he urged “tough sanctions” against Moscow if it rejects “a full and unconditional ceasefire and an end to killings.”

Kyiv and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such swap.

Ukraine‘s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said on Ukrainian TV on Saturday the exchange could happen as early as next week.

The sides also discussed a ceasefire and a meeting between their heads of state, according to the chief Ukrainian delegate, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.

Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, said both sides also agreed to provide each other with detailed ceasefire proposals, with Ukraine requesting the heads of state assembly, which Russia took under consideration.