This week, fighting continued to rage all along the front lines. Russia continued to strike Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure deep in the rear. Russia used Putin’s Easter truce to improve its tactical positions in the Lyman direction, in Ukraine’s east. Early in the week, Russia launched drone attacks on Odesa and Kharkiv, and dropped glide bombs on Zaporizhzhia, injuring dozens.
A Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers in the city of Marhanets, in the region of Dnipro, on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring at least 51 others. A combined Russian aerial attack on Thursday killed 12 in Kyiv and hit other cities, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Pavlohrad.
Putin reiterated rejection of a full ceasefire that Zelenskyi and U.S. had offered, ISW said, explaining his statements about being open to the possibility of bilateral talks with Ukraine. Trump’s peace proposal marks a substantial change in his administration’s strategy for ending the war in Ukraine, ISW said.
Peace efforts have largely stalled. The talks in London on Wednesday were downgraded after U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, reversed plans to attend the meeting. U.S. Vice President, JD Vance, repeated warnings that the United States would walk away from its efforts to broker a peace accord if Moscow and Kyiv didn’t reach an agreement soon. Meanwhile, Europe sees some of U.S. proposals for a Ukraine-Russia peace deal as unacceptable, Reuters said.
Trump says Russia has made “pretty big concession” to end war in Ukraine by not taking whole country.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that “we’re putting a lot of pressure” on both Ukraine and Russia for them to accept U.S. proposed peace plan. He took questions alongside Norway’s Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday.
When asked what concessions Russia has offered to get closer to peace, Trump responded: “Stopping the war. Stopping taking the whole country — pretty big concession.”
