Trump makes rare criticism of Putin after Russia's deadly Kyiv attacks

FE Team | Published: April 25, 2025 22:10:29

KYIV, Apr 25 (Al Jazeera): United States (US) President Donald Trump has condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin after a Russian missile attack on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, killed at least 12 people and injured dozens.
Posting on Thursday on the Truth Social platform, which he owns, Trump wrote that the attacks were "not necessary" and "very" badly timed. "Vladimir, Stop! 5,000 soldiers a week are dying," the post said.
Trump's direct appeal to Putin came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged his allies to put Russia under more pressure to halt its war, which began more than three years ago.
At a news conference in South Africa with its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, Zelenskyy said: "We do not see signs of the US putting strong pressure on Russia as part of its peace push. We believe that we can bring our sides closer with greater pressure on Russia."
Trump, said his administration was applying "a lot of pressure" on Russia and reiterated his displeasure with the attack.
But he said significant progress had been made in peace negotiations and the Kremlin had made a "pretty big concession" by being open to "stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country." "This next few days is going to be very important. Meetings are taking place right now," Trump said. "I think we're going to make a deal … I think we're getting very close."
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera's Mika Hanna said the message from Trump on Truth Social was a rare attempt to pressure on Putin.
"But once again, Trump is using 'Vladimir' - what could be interpreted as an almost affectionate term - once again indicating the nature of his relationship with Putin as opposed to the nature of his relationship with the Ukrainian leader," he said. "Trump and his administration have in recent days and weeks been putting an immense amount of pressure on the Ukrainian leadership, basically saying that they have to give up territory in order to get a peace deal done," Hanna noted.
"He has not applied the same pressure to the Russian leader, so there does appear to be a bias as the US attempts to broker a peace between the warring countries," he added.
George Barros, an analyst at the US-based Institute for the Study of War, also thinks the US has various ways of exerting greater pressure on Putin if it chooses to do so.
"There are things the US can do to make Vladimir stop. Putin has vulnerabilities we are either overlooking or choosing not to leverage," Barros said in a social media post.