Putin launches worst attack on Ukraine in months as Trump claims deal is close

Hours earlier on Wednesday, Trump said in the Oval Office that “I think we have a deal with both” sides — before suggesting that an agreement with Ukraine was still pending.

“I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy,” he said. “So far, it’s been harder.”

That came after Trump’s latest criticism of Zelenskyy on Truth Social earlier in the day. He accused his Ukrainian counterpart of making “inflammatory statements” — a reference to a Wall Street Journal interview in which Zelenskyy pushed back on Washington’s peace plan — and said of a deal he needed to “GET IT DONE.”

For Ukrainians and their supporters abroad, the attacks symbolized the hypocrisy of Russia’s position. President Vladimir Putin continues to make extreme demands — his conditions for a deal essentially resemble a Ukrainian surrender — while continuing to prosecute the invasion he launched three years ago.

Zelenskyy told the Wall Street Journal that he would never accept Russian control over Crimea, a key demand of the Kremlin’s.

“Yesterday’s Russian maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw from its regions, combined with these brutal strikes, show that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace,” Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister said in his statement. “Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied.”