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Russia launches nearly 150 drones against Ukraine as Trump doubts Putin’s desire for peace

Update Russia launches nearly 150 drones against Ukraine as Trump doubts Putin’s desire for peace
Local residents lay flowers at the site of a destroyed residential building following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv. (AFP)
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Updated 27 April 2025

Russia launches nearly 150 drones against Ukraine as Trump doubts Putin’s desire for peace

Russia launches nearly 150 drones against Ukraine as Trump doubts Putin’s desire for peace
  • Kyiv denied that its forces had been expelled from Kursk

KYIV: Russia launched a sweeping drone assault across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, targeting multiple regions, officials said, after US President Donald Trump cast doubt over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war.
One person was killed and a 14-year-old girl wounded in the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was hit for the third consecutive night, regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said.
The attacks came hours after Russia claimed to have regained control over the remaining parts of the Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion last August. Ukrainian officials said the fighting in Kursk was still ongoing.
Trump said Saturday that he doubts Putin wants to end the more than three-year war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were ” very close to a deal.”
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote in a social media post as he flew back to the United States after attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, where he met briefly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump also hinted at further sanctions against Russia.
The Trump-Zelensky conversation on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral was the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since they argued during a heated Oval Office meeting at the White House in late February.
Russia fired 149 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that 57 were intercepted and another 67 jammed.
One person was wounded in drone attacks on the Odesa region and one other in the city of Zhytomyr. Four people were also wounded in a Russian airstrike on the city of Kherson on Sunday morning, according to local officials.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that air defenses shot down five Ukrainian drones in the border region of Bryansk, as well as three drones over the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Five people were wounded when Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Horlivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, the city’s Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said.


Italy defense minister says it would be ‘absurd’ not to continue Ukraine aid

Italy defense minister says it would be ‘absurd’ not to continue Ukraine aid
Updated 14 November 2025

Italy defense minister says it would be ‘absurd’ not to continue Ukraine aid

Italy defense minister says it would be ‘absurd’ not to continue Ukraine aid
  • Crosetto said he had signed off on sending a 12th package of support for Kyiv
  • Salvini said this month that Italy could not continue sending money and weapons “for another 50 years“

ROME: It would be “absurd” for Italy not to continue or even increase its military and civilian aid to Ukraine, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on Friday at a meeting with European counterparts in Berlin.
Crosetto said he had signed off on sending a 12th package of support for Kyiv, adding Italy would help Ukraine’s energy supplies during the winter months by sending electrical generators.
“It would seem absurd to me not to continue to do so and indeed not to increase, with all the possibilities we have, our aid to a nation that is doing nothing but defending itself from an absurd and incomprehensible attack,” he said.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been a strong supporter of Ukraine, but some members of her right-wing coalition less so.
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said this month that Italy could not continue sending money and weapons “for another 50 years.”