Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Donald Trump to visit Ukraine to see the devastation caused by Russia’s invasion, while the US president appeared to play down Moscow’s latest deadly attack, the worst on civilians this year, calling it “a mistake”.
International leaders condemned Russia’s strike on the centre of the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, which killed 34 people, including two children. Two ballistic missiles hit as people made their way to church for Palm Sunday.
One of the missiles exploded next to a crowded trolleybus, killing many of the passengers onboard. Bodies lay on the ground and cars burned as rescuers carried away bloodied survivors. More than 100 were injured.
Asked about Russia’s attack on civilians, Trump said he was trying to get the war stopped. “I think it was terrible and I was told they made a mistake, but I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing,” he said.
On Monday, the Kremlin denied its army had targeted civilians or that there had been any kind of “mistake”.
“Our army hits only military and military-related targets,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said when asked about the strike and Trump’s comments.
Russia’s defence ministry appeared to concede there had been civilian casualties, but placed the blame on Ukraine. “The Kyiv regime continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield, placing military facilities and holding events with the participation of soldiers in the centre of a densely populated city,” the ministry said. Russia has made similar accusations since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump also implied his predecessor, Joe Biden, was at fault for the war that began with Vladimir Putin’s invasion. “This war would never have started if I were president. That war is a shame,” he said.
His latest comments prompted an angry response from Ukrainians who are frustrated at Trump’s failure to confront or condemn Putin.
Olena Halushka, of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre in Kyiv, said: “No one accidentally uses a cluster munition warhead against a crowded city centre on a major holiday.” She also noted that Russia had killed nine children in a similar strike last week on the city of Kryvyi Rih.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former Lithuanian foreign minister, said: “This was not a mistake. A mistake is something like imposing tariffs on penguins. What we saw in Sumy is a deliberate continuation of a genocidal invasion. Our real mistake is not helping Ukraine enough.”
In an interview with the CBS show 60 Minutes, recorded before the attack on Sumy, Zelenskyy urged Trump to see the damage from Russia’s invasion for himself. “Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” he said.
The Ukrainian president pushed back on a suggestion made by the US vice-president, JD Vance, that Ukraine laid on “propaganda tours” for foreign leaders. “We will not prepare anything. It will not be theatre. You can go exactly where you want, in any city which [has] been under attacks,” Zelenskyy said.
He expressed frustration that senior White House figures continued to repeat Kremlin talking points. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff – who met Putin on Friday in St Petersburg – recently said four Ukrainian regions had “voted” to join Russia, a reference to fake referendums in occupied territory.
“I believe that Russian narratives prevail in the United States. It seems to me that the vice-president is justifying Putin’s actions. This is a change in reality. The Russians are the aggressors, and we are the victims,” Zelenskyy said.
Kyiv has accepted a US proposal made a month ago for a 30-day ceasefire. During this period Russia has escalated its bombardment of Ukrainian cities. Zelenskyy said: “Putin can’t be trusted. I told that to President Trump many times. So when you ask why the ceasefire isn’t working – this is why.”
He added: “Putin never wanted an end to the war. Putin never wanted us to be independent. Putin wants to destroy us completely – our sovereignty and our people.”
Zelenskyy said the conflict could “escalate into world war three if Putin is not stopped”. He said the “dictator’s ultimate goal was to revive the Russian empire” and to “return territories under Nato protection” – meaning the Baltic states and eastern Europe.
Ukrainian officials said Zelenskyy had been trying to fix his relationship with Trump after their disastrous February meeting in the White House. The Trump administration has indicated that Ukraine’s future security needs are now Europe’s problem.
Speaking to CBS, Zelenskyy said US military aid to Ukraine had “practically stopped”, adding that Kyiv was willing to buy US-made Patriot air defence systems.
