Officials in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said Thursday a Russian ballistic missile attack killed at least one person and injured 24 others.
Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram that Russian drones also destroyed an energy facility and knocked out power to tens of thousands of people.
In the Mykolaiv region, Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram that Ukrainian air defenses shot down nine Russian drones. Debris from the drones damaged several houses, Kim said.
Ukraine’s military also shot down several drones over the Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region located along the Russia-Ukraine border.
Trump-Putin
U.S. President Donald Trump told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday to end his “ridiculous war” against Ukraine or the United States would soon impose new “high levels” of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on any Russian exports to the West.
Trump, two days into his second term in the White House, told Putin in a social media post that he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and that the U.S. “must never forget” that Russia helped the U.S. win World War II, but that it was time to end Moscow’s nearly three-year invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
“All of that being said,” Trump noted on his Truth Social account, “I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.”
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon,” Trump said he would “have no other choice” but to impose the taxes, tariffs and sanctions. Under President Joe Biden, who left office on Monday, the United States and its European allies frequently sanctioned key sectors of the Russian economy and oligarch friends of Putin, worsening the country’s economy but failing to stop the war.
Trump said, “Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!”
There was no immediate response from Putin to Trump’s demands.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
