After what appears to be the second-largest wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine since the war began, with at least 23 deaths, criticism of Moscow continues unabated. The White House declared on Thursday that US President Donald Trump was "not happy." Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) wrote on X that Russia "showed its true colors again last night." A meeting between Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will "obviously" not take place, Merz later said. EU defense ministers will meet in Copenhagen on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine.
At least 23 people, including four children, were killed in drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, authorities said. According to the air defense agency, Ukraine was attacked with a total of 598 drones and 31 ballistic and cruise missiles. Trump was "not happy about this news, but also not surprised," his spokeswoman Leavitt told reporters. The US president called on both sides to end the war in Ukraine started by Moscow.
"Russia launched this attack on Kyiv, and Ukraine also recently struck at Russian oil refineries," Leavitt said. These are "two countries that have been at war for a very long time." Trump wants the war to end, "but the leaders of those two countries have to want that too." During the 2024 US presidential election campaign, Trump announced he would end the war in Ukraine "in 24 hours." However, his peace efforts have so far yielded no tangible results. Even a summit with Putin in Alaska in the middle of this month failed to produce a breakthrough.
Merz condemned the attacks, which hit not only residential buildings but also the offices of the EU delegation in Ukraine and the British cultural organization, the British Council, "in the strongest possible terms." "The fact that the EU representation has now also come under fire is a testament to the growing ruthlessness of the Russian regime," Merz emphasized.
EU Council President António Costa wrote on the online service X that the attack was a "deliberate Russian attack." EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared that the EU delegation team in Ukraine was "unharmed." She called on Russia to immediately stop its "indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure" and to begin "negotiations for a just and lasting peace."
With regard to a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy announced by Trump, Merz said in the evening at a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in his summer residence Fort Brégançon that such a meeting would "obviously not" take place. "We must address this issue again today, given the fact that there will obviously not be a meeting between President Zelensky and President Putin, unlike what was agreed between President Trump and President Putin last week," Merz explained.
After a Ukraine summit at the White House last Monday, Trump announced that he was preparing a meeting between Putin and Zelensky. Merz said in Washington at the time that such a meeting should take place "within the next two weeks." However, the Russian leadership subsequently made it clear again and again that such a meeting was not being sought.
As journalists from the AFP news agency reported, emergency services and residents in Kyiv were busy removing broken glass and debris from several streets in the city center on Thursday morning. Images released by Zelenskyy showed an apartment building in which an attack had torn a five-story-deep crack. The Russian Defense Ministry described the wave of attacks as a "large-scale attack" against "enterprises of the military-industrial complex and military airfields in Ukraine."
Zelenskyy viewed Russia's nighttime attack as a sign that Putin was not prepared to cease the fighting. "Russia is choosing missiles over the negotiating table," he wrote in a statement posted online. Putin, he said, has no interest in "real diplomacy." EU defense ministers will meet for informal talks in Copenhagen on Friday to discuss military aid for Ukraine and the EU's defense readiness. Security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a peace settlement in the war against Russia are also expected to be discussed. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) will participate in the meeting.
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