Trump ‘very angry’ with Putin as Russia’s strikes on Ukraine continue despite peace push
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(LONDON) — President Donald Trump again on Monday expressed frustration with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as Russian strikes on Ukraine continued despite White House efforts to broker a peace deal between the warring neighbors.
“Every conversation I have with him is a good conversation,” the president told reporters of Putin during an Oval Office executive order signing event. “And then unfortunately, a bomb is loaded up into Kyiv or someplace, and then I get very angry about it.”
Trump has repeatedly admonished Putin for Russia’s nightly strikes on Ukrainian cities. Nonetheless, the president told reporters he was still hopeful of progress towards a peace deal.
“I think we’re going to get the war done,” Trump said, though added, “You never know what’s going to happen in a war. Strange things happen in war. The fact that [Putin] went to Alaska, our country, I think, was a big statement that he wants to get it done.”
Both Russia and Ukraine continued long-range strikes through the weekend and into Monday. On Tuesday, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 59 drones into the country overnight, of which 47 were shot down or suppressed.
The air force reported impacts of 12 drones across nine locations.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed at least 51 Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday morning, two which were en route to Moscow.
Following in-person meetings with Putin in Alaska and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — plus a host of European leaders — in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, Trump raised the hope of an imminent bilateral meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly expressed willingness to attend such a meeting. But Putin and his officials have consistently dodged the proposal.
“Maybe they will, maybe they won’t,” the president told ABC News Monday of the potential for the two men to meet. Trump said he had spoken to Putin since Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington, but declined to discuss the specifics of the call.
Asked if he would act if the bilateral meeting does not materialize, Trump refused to detail possible consequences but said he may act “over the next week or two.”
U.S. peace efforts continued on Monday, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking with European counterparts and Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg traveling to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy.
For both U.S. officials, the question of future security guarantees for Ukraine to prevent future Russian aggression was a key topic of discussion.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha took part in the call with Rubio. “I reiterated Ukraine’s position that security guarantees must be concrete, legally binding and effective,” he wrote on X after. “They should be multidimensional, including military, diplomatic, legal and other levels.”
Zelenskyy said his meeting with Kellogg was “productive,” again expressing his thanks to Trump’s efforts to broker a deal and his willingness to lend U.S. backing to security guarantees.
Kellogg, meanwhile, said the U.S. side is “working very, very hard” to get “to a position where, in the near term, we have, with a lack of a better term, security guarantees. That’s a work in progress.”
Yevhen Titov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Russian drone strikes and bombs killed at least three people in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv overnight, regional officials there said, even though Moscow’s latest drone and missile barrage elsewhere was significantly smaller than preceding nights.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a post to Telegram that another 56 people were injured by Russian attacks overnight, which included the use of Iranian-designed Shahed attack drones, first-person view commercial-style drones and KAB guided bombs.
More than 103 residential buildings were damaged, Terekhov said, describing the destruction as “enormous.”
Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second largest city with a pre-war population of around 1.4 million — sits just 20 miles from the Russian border. That proximity has seen the city bombarded throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Kharkiv has also faced intense recent attacks as Moscow expanded its drone and missile campaign, plus as Russian forces reportedly mass along the nearby border and threaten new incursions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said of the strikes on Kharkiv, “Every new day now means new vile strikes by Russia, and almost every strike is indicative. Russia deserves increased pressure, with literally every hit on ordinary life it proves that pressure is not enough. And we should not be afraid, not postpone new decisions that could complicate the situation for Russia.”
“Without this, they will not go for real diplomacy,” Zelenskyy added. “And this depends primarily on the United States and other world leaders. Everyone who called for an end to the killings and for diplomacy must act.”
Elsewhere on Tuesday night, at least five people were injured by Russian shelling in the southern Kherson region, local officials said in a post to Telegram. One person was also killed and another injured by Russian shelling in the eastern Donetsk region, officials said.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 85 drones and one missile into the country overnight, of which 49 drones were shot down or otherwise neutralized. Impacts were recorded in 14 locations, with drone debris falling in two other locations, the air force said.
Zelenskyy said in a Tuesday night post to Telegram that he had spoken with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov about “our efforts to counter drones, protect against missiles and reinforce our air defense.” The meeting came after Monday night’s massive Russian attack on cities including Kyiv.
“The Russians have once again used ballistic missiles from North Korea,” Zelenskyy said of Monday night’s attacks. “We are also tracking evidence that Russian-Iranian drone technologies have spread to North Korea. This is extremely dangerous both for Europe and for East and Southeast Asia.”
“The longer this war continues on our territory, the more warfare technologies evolve and the greater the threat will be to everyone,” Zelenskyy added. “This must be addressed now — not when thousands of upgraded Shahed drones and ballistic missiles begin to threaten Seoul and Tokyo.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down 33 Ukrainian drones overnight into Wednesday morning.
In Russia’s Tambov region — around 260 miles southeast of Moscow and 230 miles from the closest Ukrainian-controlled territory — acting governor Evgeny Pervyshov said on Telegram that a fire broke out in the town of Kotovsk due to falling drone debris. “The situation is under control,” Pervyshov wrote.
But Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a Telegram post that an explosives plant in the area was hit by drones.
Kovalenko claimed that the Tambov gunpowder plant had been forced to suspend operations by the strike. “It produces gunpowder used for various types of small arms, artillery and rocket systems,” he said of the facility.
“The enterprise is one of the main suppliers of explosives for the Russian army,” Kovalenko added. “With the beginning of a full-scale war in Ukraine, production at the plant has increased significantly.”
The governor of Russia’s western Belgorod region said six people were also injured by a Ukrainian drone strike on a factory in the town of Shebekino. All were hospitalized, the governor said in a post to Telegram.
ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — A Denmark zoo is asking the public to donate their pets — particularly chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs — so that they can feed them to the zoo’s predators.
“In zoos we have a responsibility to imitate the natural food chain of the animals — in terms of both animal welfare and professional integrity,” the Aalborg Zoo said in a statement last Thursday.
The request created a backlash online with many disagreeing with the practice, but the zoo said the purpose of the program is to make sure “nothing goes to waste — and [to] ensure natural behavior, nutrition and well-being of our predators,” according to the zoo’s website.
The zoo also said they would accept larger animals, such as horses, which they euthanize and slaughter for food, though they said that the zoo’s needs vary throughout the year and there might be a waiting list.
For horses, Aalborg Zoo receives the horse as a donation and the owner of the horse can obtain a tax deduction for the value of the horse, according to the zoo’s website.
The zoo also said they will “accept chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs on weekdays between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., but no more than four at a time.”
ABC News has reached out to Aalborg Zoo for comment.
The practice is not unheard of in Denmark and, in 2014, the Copenhagen Zoo garnered attention on social media when it killed a healthy giraffe and fed it to their predators.
Four lions, including two cubs, were also euthanized several weeks later to make room for a new male lion in the Danish zoo. The lions were euthanized for not being able to defend themselves against him, zoo officials said at the time.
“If you have an animal that has to leave here for various reasons, feel free to donate it to us,” the zoo said. “The animals are gently euthanized by trained staff and are afterwards used as fodder.”
Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump on Sunday teased what he said would be a “big day” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a host of European leaders prepared for a White House meeting that Trump said can end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “almost immediately.”
Monday’s Washington, D.C., summit follows Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Since that meeting, Trump appears to have dropped his demand for Russia to agree to an immediate ceasefire and is now pressuring Kyiv to accept territorial concessions to secure a peace deal.
On Sunday, Trump explicitly said Ukraine will not regain Crimea — occupied by Russia in 2014. The president also repeated that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO, though White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Zelenskyy have hinted at alternative security guarantees involving the U.S.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump wrote on social media on Sunday.
The president has previously incorrectly framed Ukraine as the initiator of the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. That invasion followed Moscow’s cross-border aggression in 2014, which saw Russia seize Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region.
“Big day at the White House tomorrow,” Trump added. “I’ve never had so many European leaders at one time. It’s my great honor to host them!!!”
“NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE,” Trump added. “Some things never change!!!”
Trump is expected to greet Zelenskyy outside the West Wing at 1 p.m. ET, according to a schedule published by the White House, after which they will hold a bilateral meeting. The president is scheduled to take photos with European leaders at around 2:30 p.m. ET and hold a multilateral meeting with them at 3 p.m.
Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that he had arrived in Washington on Sunday night, expressing his gratitude to Trump for hosting the planned meeting. “We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably,” Zelenskyy wrote.
“And peace must be lasting,” he added, noting Moscow’s 2014 aggression plus the failure of the international community to enforce the 1994 Budapest Memorandum — which was also signed by Russia — that offered Ukraine “security assurances” in exchange for Kyiv surrendering its Cold War-era nuclear arsenal.
“Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their independence,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Russia must end this war, which it itself started. And I hope that our joint strength with America, with our European friends, will force Russia into a real peace.”
Friday’s summit in Alaska ended with Russia demanding that Ukraine cede the entirety of its contested and fortified eastern Donetsk region in exchange for an end to the fighting, two sources told ABC News.
Trump then challenged Kyiv to “make the deal” and lavished praise on Putin. “Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” Trump told Fox News after the meeting. Putin, he added, is a “strong guy” and “tough as hell.”
A host of European leaders will accompany Zelenskyy at the White House meeting. European leaders have backed Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s positions during the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Kyiv.
Those confirmed as attending are European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
Ahead of last week’s summit in Alaska, European leaders echoed Zelenskyy’s position that a ceasefire must precede peace negotiations, that security guarantees for Kyiv must be put in place and that only Ukraine can make the final decision on any territorial concessions.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that he and his fellow European leaders will be traveling to Washington both to support Zelenskyy and “to defend European interests” at a “very serious” moment for the continent’s security.
“If we are weak today with Russia, we prepare the wars of tomorrow,” Macron said, adding that Moscow had “never” respected past “promises of non-aggression.”
The nature of Western security guarantees for Ukraine will be a key topic for discussion, Macron said, explaining to journalists a two-pronged approach by which Ukraine’s military would be bolstered and a Western “reassurance force” would be deployed to Ukraine to act as a deterrent against renewed Russian attacks.
Any concessions will spark intense debate within Ukraine. The country’s constitution dictates that any changes to the national borders must be approved by an all-Ukraine referendum.
Kyiv’s ambitions to join both NATO and the European Union are also enshrined in the constitution, meaning it may need to be amended for Ukraine to accept exclusion from either bloc.
“Territorial concessions are impossible,” Oleksandr Mrezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News. “Under the present circumstances, we need a ceasefire and security guarantees to prevent Putin from violating the ceasefire.”
“In my opinion, Putin’s idea about a ‘peace treaty’ instead of a ceasefire is extremely dangerous and unacceptable for both Ukraine and the U.S.,” he added.
“That the U.S. offers to be engaged in security guarantees is great news for us, but we don’t know yet what it will be in practice,” Merezhko said. “I personally continue to believe that the best option for all — Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU — is NATO membership for Ukraine.”
“Putin is afraid of only one thing — NATO,” Merezhko added. “That’s why it’s the most reliable and effective security guarantee for us.”
Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine continued long-range attacks overnight into Monday.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 140 drones and four missiles in the country, of which 88 drones were shot down or suppressed. Missile and drone impacts were reported across 25 locations in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Kyiv regions, the air force said.
At least seven people, including a child, were killed when a Russian drone impacted an apartment complex in Kharkiv, local officials said.
Zaporizhzhia Gov. Ivan Fedorov said in a post to Telegram that at least three people were killed and at least 20 people injured by missile strikes in the southern region.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces downed at least 24 Ukrainian drones overnight.
