Donald Trump has said he is “pissed off” after Vladimir Putin criticised the credibility of Ukraine’s president and has threatened a 25% tariff on Russian oil. Meanwhile, Russia has bombed the city of Kharkiv for the second night in row, injuring two people. Follow the latest here.
Monday 31 March 2025 10:05, UK
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Donald Trump’s words reflect an “even-handedness” that has been lacking when it comes to Vladimir Putin, our US correspondent James Matthews says.
Matthews explains that what it upsetting Trump is Putin’s intervention at the end of last week in which he questioned the legitimacy of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said a peace agreement brokered by Zelenskyy could in the future be challenged.
“Trump doesn’t see that as productive in terms of progress towards peace and he has threatened Russia with further sanctions if he thinks Russia is holding up a peace agreement,” Matthews says.
With Trump threatening to impose 50% tariffs on Russian oil, Matthews says: “This is a rebuke for Putin – the likes of which we haven’t heard from Trump, who himself has undermined the credibility of Ukraine’s president.
“This is ultimately a two-way negotiation for America and this from Trump has the sound at least of an even-handedness that has been lacking from the US president.”
Russia is changing its drone tactics on the battlefield, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports.
In its latest update, the US-based thinktank noted that Russian forces had struck a military hospital and civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv city over the weekend.
Their report states that Kremlin-affiliated Russian military bloggers agree with a recent report from the German outlet Bild that Russian forces have “altered their long-range drone strike tactic and now have drones loiter several kilometres from their targets at high altitudes” before conducting strikes with multiple drones.
“The military bloggers further speculated that these tactics have facilitated recent Russian drone strikes on Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro,” the ISW says.
We reported earlier that Russia had attacked the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine for a second consecutive night.
And over the weekend, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had fired more than 1,000 drones over the past week.
Donald Trump’s comments on Vladimir Putin yesterday have gained attention from many – it’s certainly a step away from his usual style.
Since taking office in January, Trump has adopted a more conciliatory stance towards Russia that has left Western allies wary.
But his sharp comments about Putin yesterday reflect his growing frustration about the lack of movement on a ceasefire.
Here is what he had to say last night…
As we’ve been reporting this morning, Vladimir Putin has come under the criticism of Donald Trump, whom he has generally spoken positively about.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also had some words to say about the Russian leader in his night address yesterday.
“The geography and brutality of Russian strikes, not just occasionally, but literally everyday and night, show that Putin couldn’t care less about diplomacy,” he said.
“For several weeks now, there has been a US proposal for an unconditional ceasefire and almost every day, in response to this proposal, there are Russian drones, bombs, artillery shelling, and ballistic strikes.”
Ukraine’s president also urged the US and its partners to increase pressure on Russia to “break its capacity to wage war.”
“Russia deserves increased pressure – all the tough measures that can break its capacity to wage war and sustain the system that wants nothing but war,” he added.
“Sanctions against Russia are essential. More air defence for Ukraine is essential. More cooperation and unity among all partners is essential.”
A little more detail from Donald Trump’s comments to reporters on his flight back to Washington late last night, when he also said there was a “psychological deadline” for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
The US president reiterated his annoyance towards Vladimir Putin but added he had “always gotten along well” with him.
Asked when he wanted Russia to agree to a ceasefire, Trump said there was a “psychological deadline”.
“If I think they’re tapping us along, I will not be happy about it,” he said.
The US president was speaking after Russian drones hit a military hospital, shopping centre and apartment blocks in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, killing two people and wounding dozens (see post at 6.48am).
Earlier this month, Putin said Russia agreed to an end to fighting in Ukraine, but “lots of questions” remained over proposals for a 30-day ceasefire.
Casting doubt over whether a deal can be agreed, the Russian president said a ceasefire must lead to “long-term peace” which “would remove the initial reasons for the crisis”.
Russia has previously said it would not accept Ukraine joining NATO and European peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb has suggested that 20 April is a “good time for a complete ceasefire without any conditions” in Ukraine, Yle reports.
Stubb, who is set to meet with Sir Keir Starmer today, said he had spent seven hours with Trump and discussed a range of topics, from NATO membership to Europe taking responsibility for its own security.
During the talks, Stubb said he stressed that a ceasefire must be achieved – and that Finland’s perspective is that 20 April would be a suitable date.
“Why 20 April? It’s because we need a deadline, because it’s Easter, and because Donald Trump will then have been in office for three months,” he said.
The Finnish president said he sensed growing frustration from Trump with Russia’s delays in coming to a ceasefire deal.
“[Trump] is quite impatient with Russia’s actions, this kind of scheming and delaying regarding the ceasefire. I tried to explain that this is completely normal Russian behaviour. First we negotiate something – and then the conditions are changed once again,” he added.
Finland officially joined NATO in 2023 and Sweden joined shortly after.
The two Nordic states had long maintained military neutrality, but that changed when Russia launched its war in Ukraine.
We have a bit more from Donald Trump this morning, who has also said Volodomyr Zelenskyy faces “big, big problems” if he backs out of a mineral deal with the US.
“He’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
“If he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems. We made a deal on rare earth. And now he’s saying, ‘well you know, I want to renegotiate the deal’.”
Speaking en route from Florida to Washington, Trump added: “He wants to be a member of NATO. He was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that.”
Although he insisted to reporters that “we’re making a lot of progress”, he acknowledged that “there’s tremendous hatred” between Zelenskyy and Putin, a fresh indication that negotiations may not produce the swift conclusion that he promised during the campaign.
The US president’s remarks come hours after he criticised Vladimir Putin for comments he made about the leader of Ukraine.
For context: Last week, reports emerged that Trump was pushing for more in the minerals deal.
The new deal gives Ukraine no future security guarantees – a key request for Kyiv – but requires it to chip in to a joint investment fund all income from the use of natural resources managed across the country.
These terms go well beyond the proposal discussed in the lead up to the disastrous Oval Office meeting last month between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russia bombed the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine for the second night in row, injuring two people, Ukrainian officials have said thins morning.
The attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city lasted most of the night and hit the city’s largest and oldest district, sparking fires and damaging a kindergarten, mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
“The sixth explosion in Kharkiv,” Terekhov said in a post on Telegram.
These attacks come a week after after a US-brokered partial ceasefire on strikes on energy and Black Sea infrastructure.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians, saying their attacks are aimed at destroying each other’s military infrastructure.
Donald Trump has said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” after Vladimir Putin criticised the credibility of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a phone call with Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News.
Trump said the Russian president’s recent comments, calling for a transitional government to be put in place in Ukraine in a move that could effectively push out Zelenskyy, were “not going in the right direction”.
He told NBC’s Kirsten Welker: “If I feel we’re in the midst of a negotiation, you could say that I was very angry, pissed off, when Putin said yesterday that – you know, when Putin started getting into Zelenskyy’s credibility, because that’s not going in the right direction.”
The US leader added that if Russia was unable to make a deal on “stopping bloodshed in Ukraine” – and Trump felt that Moscow was to blame – then he would put secondary tariffs on “all oil coming out of Russia”.
“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25 to 50-point tariff on all oil,” he said.
It is a rare move by Trump to criticise Putin, whom he has generally spoken positively about during discussions to end the war in Ukraine.
You can read more here…
By Adam McGroarty, live news reporter
Welcome back to another week of our live coverage of the war in Ukraine and efforts to bring an end to the fighting.
Before we get to our live updates, here’s everything you need to know ahead of a new week.
Peace talks
The start of last week saw a US delegation hold talks with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia fresh off the back of discussions with Ukrainian officials.
The White House confirmed an agreement had been reached during talks over safe navigation in the Black Sea.
Significantly, Washington said it would also help to restore Russia’s access to global markets for agricultural and fertiliser exports.
Watch: Who benefits from a Black Sea ceasefire?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said the deal would “ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea”.
Our security and defence analyst Michael Clarke pointed out that Russia is only agreeing to deals in its favour, and it finds itself in a position where it’s keen to get its equipment out of the Black Sea.
In its response to the talks, the Kremlin called for sanctions to be lifted before any Black Sea ceasefire begins. Ukraine, meanwhile, said its understanding was the ceasefire was in force as soon as it was agreed.
Dispute over ongoing strikes despite ceasefire
Both sides also disputed the details of the pause on attacks on energy infrastructure.
Hours after Washington announced the Black Sea agreement, Ukraine said it had downed drones in the port city of Mykolaiv, with Zelenskyy accusing Vladimir Putin of not wanting peace.
Meanwhile, Russia said it downed Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and also claimed a key gas transit point had been practically destroyed in the town of Sudzha.
Moscow accused Kyiv of a “double attack” while a Ukrainian national security official said Russia “again attacked the Sudzha gas transmission system” which it “does not control”.
‘Coalition of the willing’ or ‘reassurance force’?
Over in Paris last Thursday, Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of reinterpreting what was agreed during ceasefire talks.
He was hosting the latest meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing”, where he committed to a further €2bn in French military support.
Zelenskyy told reporters after the meeting that he was pleased to see a commitment of “no lifting of any kind of sanctions until Russia will stop this war”.
Watch: ‘Ukraine deserves peace’, Macron says
Meanwhile, Macron said Britain and France will send a delegation to Ukraine to work with Kyiv’s armed forces to help them plan for the future.
He also announced his plan for a “reassurance force” in Ukraine to act as a security guarantee and be deployed the day after a peace deal.
He said the force is in a planning phase, but that it would not be a substitute for peacekeeping troops maintaining any ceasefire.
An anti-Europe VP has entered the chat
The most eye-opening moment of the week came when a reporter was accidentally included in a group chat where senior US officials discussed conducting airstrikes on Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, was added to a group which included US vice president JD Vance, defence secretary Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Mike Waltz and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
While the messages were mainly about the airstrike plans, they include JD Vance, Trump’s vice president who clashed with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office earlier this year, expressing his dislike of Europe once again.
“I just hate bailing Europe out again,” he said in one message expressing his opposition to the strikes, prompting Hegseth to label European nations “pathetic” and accuse them of “freeloading” over defence spending.
Watch: Leaked security chat explained
Battlefield news
Ukraine’s top general said Russian forces are intensifying actions in the Sumy region in their attempt to advance.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukrainian troops were conducting defensive and assault operations to stop Russia from advancing deep into Ukrainian territory.
His comments followed Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s warning that Russia is preparing a spring offensive on the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Sumy borders Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have struggled in recent weeks to keep hold of Russian territory.
Ukraine had captured swathes of land during a stunning cross-border offensive that began last August, in a bid to ease pressure elsewhere on the frontline.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have claimed two settlements in eastern Ukraine – Myrne, in the Donetsk region, and Mali Shcherbaky, in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Here’s the latest battlefield picture in a series of maps. Scroll from left to right to see the frontline and the situation in Kursk.
Elsewhere…
Our security and defence analyst Michael Clarke answered your questions in our latest Q&A session.
Here’s a snapshot of what he was asked:
Watch the full Q&A in the video below.
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