Donald Trump has blamed Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the war in Ukraine. It comes after Russia tried to explain a deadly attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy yesterday. Trump says the strike was a “mistake”. Follow the latest below.
Monday 14 April 2025 17:47, UK
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Russia has accused Germany of taking a position that could lead to an escalation of the war in Ukraine.
Friedrich Merz, due to take office as German chancellor next month, has suggested his country could provide Kyiv with Taurus long-range missiles.
Asked by German public broadcaster ARD if he would supply the weapons, Merz said he would consider that if it were part of a wider package of support agreed with European allies.
“This must be jointly agreed,” he said. “And if it’s agreed, then Germany should take part.”
In response, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, claimed that Merz’s comments showed he advocated a “tougher position” which would “inevitably lead only to a further escalation of the situation around Ukraine”.
He added: “Unfortunately, it’s true that European capitals are not inclined to look for ways to reach peace talks, but are rather inclined to further instigate the continuation of the war.”
Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of not being “competent”.
Speaking in the White House’s Oval Office just now in a meeting with El Salvador’s leader, he told reporters: “If Biden were competent, and if Zelenskyy were competent, and I don’t know that he is…
“There was no way that war should never have been allowed to happen.”
He added: “Biden could have stopped it, and Zelenskyy could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it.”
‘When you start a war, you’ve got to know you can win’
Asked about Zelenskyy, Trump said: “When you start a war you’ve got to know you can win the war.
“You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size.
“And then hope that people give you some missiles.”
Trump says he was the first to give Ukraine Javelin missiles.
“Millions of people are dead because of three people,” Trump adds.
“Let’s say Putin number one, let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelenskyy.
“And all I can do is try and stop it – that’s all I want to do. I want to stop the killing.
“And I think we’re doing well in that regard. I think you’ll have some very good proposals very soon.”
Donald Trump’s latest Ukraine outburst on Truth Social (see previous post) comes the day after Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the US president to visit Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president told CBS: “Please come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children, destroyed or dead.”
Zelenskyy said Trump should visit his country before making any negotiation decisions in talks with Russia.
During the interview, he was asked if Ukraine could rely on support from the United States.
He paused, before saying: “Even in this pause of mine, there’s a problem, because I want to answer truthfully and quickly that the United States is our strategic, strong partner.
“But the pause is doubt. I don’t doubt that the people of America are with us, but in a long war, many details are forgotten.”
Now, that doubt may have grown stronger after Donald Trump accused him of “allowing” the war to start.
On 28 February, Zelenskyy visited the White House and was heavily criticised by Trump and vice president JD Vance.
Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “allowing” the Ukraine war to begin.
In an angry post on Truth Social, the US president describes the conflict as “Biden’s war, not mine”.
He adds: “President Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin.
“There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting.”
Trump also claims that had he remained in the White House after his first term, the war would never have begun.
“If the 2020 Presidential Election was not RIGGED, and it was, in so many ways, that horrible War would never have happened,” he says.
For context: Trump published this latest Truth Social rant the day after Russia’s ballistic missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, which Volodymyr Zelenskyy says killed 34 people.
A few weeks ago, Trump described Zelenskyy as a “dictator”, before withdrawing the comment a few days later.
During campaigning for last year’s US presidential election, Trump repeatedly said the war in Ukraine would not have happened if he had been in the White House.
But despite Trump’s claims, it was Vladimir Putin’s Russian forces that launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
As we reported this morning, Europe’s foreign ministers have been discussing Ukraine in Luxembourg today.
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minster, was scheduled to join the meeting, chaired by EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas.
Now, Ms Kallas has said the EU is working on a 17th package of sanctions against Russia.
“All those who want the killing to stop should put the maximum pressure,” she said earlier.
The UK has today sent £752m to Ukraine to be converted into air defences and artillery.
It is part of a £38bn international loan programme backed by frozen Russian assets.
Monday’s payment is the second of three instalments totalling £2.26bn. The first was on 6 March and the final one will be paid next year.
The G7 agreed a lending package last October, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves and her Ukrainian counterpart, Serhiy Marchenko, finalised details of Britain’s contribution in March.
John Healey, the defence secretary, has said the UK will give Ukraine £4.5bn of support in total this year
As well as air defences and artillery, the money will be used to purchase spare parts for vehicles and other equipment.
Additional British aid includes help in procuring radar systems, anti-tank mines and hundreds of thousands of drones.
“The world is changing before our eyes, reshaped by global instability, including Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Rachel Reeves said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has given an update on those injured in Russian missile attacks on the city of Sumy yesterday.
The Ukrainian president says 38 people are still receiving medical treatment, including nine children.
Eleven people, including three children, are in a critical condition, the leader says in a lengthy statement on X.
Zelenskyy says 34 people died, while 119 were injured.
In addition to the Russian attack on Odesa overnight, mentioned in our previous post below, Zelenskyy says Moscow also struck Slovyansk, Uman, Kharkiv, Beryslav and other cities and villages.
“All the damaged sites are civilian: apartment buildings, stores, a car service station,” Zelenskyy says.
He adds: “Only real pressure on Russia can stop this.
“Tangible sanctions are needed against the sectors that finance Russia’s killing machine.
“The ones who brought the war must be stopped and held accountable for what they have done; that is only fair.”
Nine people were injured in Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa overnight.
Exploding drones were part of the arsenal.
Regional head Oleh Kiper said a medical facility was among the buildings damaged.
As we’ve been reporting, the main attack by Moscow’s forces yesterday was in Sumy, where 34 people were killed on Palm Sunday.
We’ve got some further details from the Russian defence ministry’s statement on the Sumy attack.
It claims that the attack targeted a meeting of the command staff of the “Siversk” operational-tactical group.
Despite Ukraine reporting the number of people killed in the attack to be 34, Russia’s defence ministry said it killed “more than 60” Ukrainian armed forces servicemen instead.
It also accused Ukraine of using civilians as “human shields” by “holding events with the participation of military personnel” in the middle of densely populated cities.
Ukrainians living in New York gathered for an emergency rally in Times Square yesterday after Russia’s attack on Sumy.
People held signs telling people to: “Google Sumy today”.
Another displayed a fake mugshot of Vladimir Putin holding up a card that identified him as a war criminal.
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