KYIV, Ukraine, April 24, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Donald Trump on Thursday called on
Vladimir Putin to halt attacks on Ukraine, in a rare rebuke of the Russian
leader after Moscow fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Kyiv, killing
at least 12 in the deadliest attack on the capital in months.

The direct appeal to Putin came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
urged his allies to put Russia under more pressure to halt its invasion.

The Ukrainian leader cut short a trip to South Africa to deal with the
aftermath of the deadly strikes, the latest in a wave of large-scale Russian
aerial attacks that have killed dozens of civilians.

"I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV," Trump said on social
media.

"Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP!" he said. "Lets get the
Peace Deal DONE!"

Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff is due in Russia this week where he is expected
to hold talks with Putin on a possible deal, his fourth since Trump returned
to the White House in January.

Ukraine has been battered with aerial attacks throughout Russia's three-year
invasion but deadly strikes on Kyiv, better protected by air defences than
other cities, are less common.

The attacks threw more doubt on already fraught US efforts to push Russia and
Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, with Trump having lashed out at Zelensky
this week for not being willing to accept Russian occupation of Crimea,
annexed by Moscow in 2014.

"We do everything that our partners have proposed, only what contradicts our
legislation and the Constitution we cannot do," Zelensky told reporters in
South Africa in response to a question about Crimea.

Zelensky also questioned whether Kyiv's allies were themselves doing enough
to force Putin to agree to a full and unconditional ceasefire.

"I don't see any strong pressure on Russia or any new sanctions packages
against Russia's aggression," Zelensky said, highlighting that Trump had
previously warned of repercussions if Moscow did not agree to pause the
fighting.

"The strikes must be stopped immediately and unconditionally," Zelensky said,
calling Thursday morning's aerial assault "one of the most sophisticated,
most brazen" of the entire war.

- 'Pulled out of the rubble' -

Loud blasts sounded over the Ukrainian capital at around 1:00 am (2200 GMT)
after air raid sirens rang out across Kyiv, AFP journalists on the ground
said.

Russia fired at least 70 missiles and 145 drones at Ukraine between late
Wednesday and early Thursday, the main target being Kyiv, the Ukrainian air
force said.

"As of 5:30 pm, the death toll in Kyiv's Sviatoshinsky district has risen to
12," Ukraine's state emergency services said on social media, adding that the
number of wounded had risen to 90.

Russia said it had targeted Ukraine's defence industry, including plants that
produced "rocket fuel and gunpowder".

Olena Davydiuk, a 33-year-old lawyer in Kyiv, told AFP she saw windows
breaking and doors "falling out of their hinges" during the barrage.

"People were being pulled out of the rubble. They said that there were dead
people there too," she added.

- Crimea -

In Sviatoshinsky, west of Kyiv, an AFP journalist saw a body bag with one of
the victims lain out on a strip of grass.

A woman sat on a small folded-out chair stroking the arm of another person
killed in the attack, the body covered in a striped blue sheet.

Moscow's army has launched some of its most deadly aerial strikes at Ukraine
over the last month -- defying Trump's push to bring about a rapid end to the
bloodshed.

A ballistic missile strike on the centre of northeastern city of Sumy killed
at least 35 on April 13.

And an attack on Zelensky's home town of Kryvyi Rig in early April killed at
least 19 -- including nine children after a missile slammed into a
residential area near a children's playground.

Trump had on Wednesday accused Zelensky of frustrating peace efforts by
ruling out recognising Russia's claim over Crimea, a territory the US
president said was "lost years ago".

Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 and then backed rebels in
eastern Ukraine.

Asked about Trump's comments the Kyiv had "lost" Crimea, Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday: "This completely corresponds with
our understanding, which we have been saying for a long time."