U.S. President Donald Trump has once again failed to condemn his Russian counterpart in the aftermath of yet another devastating missile attack on Ukraine, casting further doubt on Washington's ability to fairly broker a peace in the country.
"I am not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, Stop!" Trump said on the Truth Social platform, after 12 people were killed in Kyiv overnight on April 24, and 90 others injured.
Trump urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to "get the peace deal done," stopping short of directly condemning him.
At the scene of one of the residential buildings devastated in last night's attack, the Kyiv Independent asked some of the survivors if they thought the Trump administration was actually provoking such attacks by taking such a soft stance toward Russia.
"Yes, I think so," 30-year-old linguist Polina Levytska, who survived with her mother and two cats, said.
"Of course, the current American strategy is not working. It is harmful to Ukraine, and this is already obvious."
The response from U.S. Vice President JD Vance in the aftermath of the attack was even more lacking — instead of condemning or even commenting on the strike, he instead reshared a post from Trump denouncing President Volodymyr Zelensky and accusing him of being the main impediment to peace in Ukraine.
"It is almost impossible to believe," Inna Sovsun, a Ukrainian lawmaker from the Holos political party, told the Kyiv Independent.
"That the beacon of democracy – and all of that – that they would be behaving in such a way."
Frustration with the U.S.-backed peace process continues to mount — Kyiv has done all that has been asked of it since it began in earnest, and yet still faces devastating strikes from Russia, and pressure from Washington to accept demands that are unacceptable for Ukraine..
On March 11, Kyiv signed off on a U.S.-proposed, full 30-day truce, and has taken steps toward signing a minerals deal with Washington after Trump cut off military and intelligence sharing following a now-infamous rebuke of Zelensky in the Oval Office in February.
In stark contrast, Russia has refused to agree to a full ceasefire, and ramped up attacks on Ukrainian civilians — yet the White House has not taken a single step to apply pressure on the Kremlin to get them to stop.
The Trump administration is now pushing a peace deal that rewards Russia's war of aggression and strips Ukraine of territory with no security guarantees that could prevent Moscow from launching another war in the future.
"Putin won't leave us alone," Maria Rumiantseva, a 40-year-old resident of one of the buildings damaged in the attack, told the Kyiv Independent.
"We'll give him a bit of something now, give him some more, get a respite, and Putin will attack us again. He's a sick man. Who are we going to negotiate with? There's no point in negotiating," she added.
The attack on Kyiv came just hours after the Kremlin yet again demanded Ukraine's full recognition of Russia’s claim over four Ukrainian oblasts it partially occupies, and Crimea that Moscow occupies in full, neutral status for Ukraine, and an end to all Western military support.
"I do think that it is terrifying, the whole situation," Sovsun said, adding: "And I do think that why it came about is because in the process of negotiations, the U.S. put pressure only on one side.
"And the side they chose to put pressure on is the side of the victim, instead of trying to deal with the aggressor, with those who created this whole mess.
"They're basically indulging Putin to continue acting as he did."
Chris York
