Extract from ABC News
Mr Trump said Volodymyr Zelenskyy should share the blame with Vladimir Putin. (Reuters: Thomas Peter)
In short:
Donald Trump has again accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of starting a war with Russia, just days after Moscow's air strikes strikes claimed the lives of 25 in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
US Vice President JD Vance also rounded on the Ukrainian leader, saying his claim the US was on the Russia's side was "absurd".
Meanwhile, Russia has jailed a soldier for 15 years after convicting him of desertion and voluntary surrender to Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump has again accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of starting the war with Russia — a day after a massive Russian attack killed 35 people in Sumy.
Mr Trump said the Ukrainian President must share blame with Vladimir Putin for the war and the "millions of people dead".
Speaking at the White House, Mr Trump, referring to US funding for Ukraine, said: "You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles."
It comes as Sumy mourns the loss of 35 people, including two children, after Russian missiles hit the north-eastern Ukrainian city earlier this week.
Firefighters battle a blaze from a missile strike in Central Sumy. (Reuters: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout)
Mr Trump also placed blame on the former US President Joe Biden for the conflict.
"Millions of people dead because of three people. Let's say Putin number one, let's say Biden who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelenskyy,"Mr Trump said.
The US president said the latest attack in Sumy was "terrible" and that Russia "made a mistake".
Vance criticises Zelenskyy, again
Meanwhile, US Vice-President JD Vance has also criticised Mr Zelenskyy.
JD Vance weighed in after listening to Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak for 40 minutes. (Reuters: Brian Snyder)
Responding to the Ukrainian president's interview with CBS in which he accused the US of siding with Russia on some issues, that Mr Vance said that kind of rhetoric was "certainly not productive".
“I believe, sadly, Russian narratives are prevailing in the US," Mr Zelenskyy had said.
Mr Vance said he had condemned Russia since 2022 but had since tried to understand the strategic objectives of both sides to find a solution.
"That doesn't mean you morally support the Russian cause, or that you support the full-scale invasion, but you do have to try to understand what are their strategic red lines, in the same way that you have to try to understand what the Ukrainians are trying to get out of the conflict," he said.
"I think it's sort of absurd for Zelenskyy to tell the [US] government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we are somehow on the side of the Russians."
Russia says not easy to agree on peace talks with US
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it was not easy to agree with the United States on the key parts of a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
He added that Russia would never again allow itself to depend economically on the West.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the "bloodbath" of the three-year war in Ukraine, though a deal has yet to be agreed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says it has been difficult to agree. (Reuters: Kaan Soyturk)
"It is not easy to agree the key components of a settlement. They are being discussed," Mr Lavrov said.
"We are well aware of what a mutually beneficial deal looks like, which we have never rejected, and what a deal looks like that could lead us into another trap," he added, speaking to the Kommersant newspaper.
Mr Lavrov did praise Donald Trump's "common sense" approach to ending the war in the region.
The Kremlin also said that it was too early to expect results from the restoration of more normal relations with Washington.
US envoy unable to advance Ukraine peace deal with Russia. (Elias Clure)
Russian soldier jailed for surrendering
Meanwhile, a Russian military court has jailed a soldier for 15 years after convicting him of desertion and voluntary surrender to Ukraine, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
It is Russia's first such prosecution since it introduced the crime of voluntary surrender in September 2022.
It is the first time Russia has prosecuted a soldier for the crime. (Reuters: Sergey Pivovarov)
According to Kommersant, a court on the far eastern Russian island of Sakhalin found soldier Roman Ivanishin guilty of voluntary surrender, of attempting to voluntarily surrender, and of desertion.
Ivanishin, who was reported to have denied all the charges, will serve his sentence in a maximum security facility.
His trial was held behind closed doors.
The newspaper reported that Ivanishin, a miner on Sakhalin in civilian life, was mobilised in 2022 and fought in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
He was captured by Ukrainian soldiers in June 2023 and, in a video published on the internet, was shown denouncing Russia's military campaign in Ukraine and calling on other soldiers to desert.
Ivanishin was returned to Russia in a prisoner exchange in January 2024 and was placed under investigation, Kommersant said.
Reuters
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