Trump Speaks To Ukraine’s Leader After Unprecedented Russian Strikes
By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Friday that he spoke with U.S. President Donald J. Trump about the need to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense hours after Kyiv experienced its heaviest Russian air strikes since the outbreak of the war more than three years ago.
With explosions of drone and ballistic missions lighting up the sky over Ukraine’s capital and other cities, Zelenskyy pleaded for a resumption of crucial military aid.
Citing concerns over its own stockpiles, Washington halted its latest shipment of military aid to Ukraine, including Patriot air defense missiles and other crucial munitions meant to support the country’s defenses.
That decision came more than a week after an emotional Ukrainian reporter of Britain’s broadcaster BBC asked Trump about military aid.
During the NATO military alliance summit last month in The Hague, Trump tried to comfort the Ukrainian reporter who appeared close to tears when she questioned him whether the U.S. would sell more anti-missile systems, such as the Patriots, to Ukraine.
“We know that Russia has been pounding Ukraine really heavily right now,” added the reporter of the Ukrainian service of Britain’s broadcaster BBC.
‘UPSETTING TO YOU’
When Trump asked her whether she currently lived in Ukraine, she replied that her husband, who serves in the army, had wanted her and the kids to move away from the country.
“I wish you a lot of luck. I can see it is very upsetting to you,” Trump told the visibly moved reporter. He said he would look into her “very good question,” as the U.S. also needs the Patriots and had given Israel many of these systems. “They are 100 percent effective.”
However, by Friday, it became clear that without enough Patriots, Ukraine may be unable to avoid more devastating damage.
In a brief note about their call, Zelenskyy said on social media that the U.S. president was “very well informed” about the situation in Ukraine, as the pair discussed “the possibilities of air defence and agreed that we will work on increasing the protection in the sky.”
He said they agreed to hold a separate meeting between their teams on this issue.
Zelenskyy added that they also discussed the opportunities for joint arms production, saying, “We are ready for direct projects with America,” as well as potential other joint purchases and investments.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
The Ukrainian president also passed his best wishes on the U.S. Independence Day, thanking for the American support so far.
“We have done a lot together with America and support all efforts to stop the killings and restore a normal, stable, dignified peace. A decent agreement is needed for peace, and Ukraine supports American proposals,” he said.
Trump spoke with Zelenskyy as the U.S. president appeared increasingly disheartened over his chances of fulfilling a campaign pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The U.S. president said he was “very disappointed” after an earlier telephone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Thursday.
A Putin aide told reporters that the Russian president made clear he was not willing to make concessions on what the Kremlin called the “root causes” of the war with Ukraine, a list of grievances that includes NATO expansion and Ukraine’s desire to join Western economic and security blocs.
Russia also refuses to give up captured territories in a war that is believed to have killed and injured more than a million people, many of them young soldiers.
MASSIVE STRIKE
Shortly after the call, Kyiv was attacked by at least 539 Iranian-made Shahed drones and 11 missiles targeting Ukraine, according to Ukrainian Air Force data seen by Worthy News.
Of those, 270 airborne threats were confirmed shot down, while 208 went off radar and are presumed jammed. Russia reportedly succeeded in hitting eight locations using nine missiles and 63 drones, Worthy News reported.
Fires erupted across at least five of Kyiv’s 10 districts, with apartment blocks being partially destroyed, killing at least one person and injuring nearly two dozen others, including a 10-year-old girl, authorities said.
Ukraine accused Putin of “publicly humiliating” Trump after Russia launched a devastating attack just after the U.S. and Russian leaders spoke by phone.
Zelenskyy described the seven-hour raid as a “deliberate act of terror” which “immediately followed the call between Washington and Moscow”.
It was one of the most severe assaults of the entire war and a “clear interpretation of how Moscow interprets diplomacy”, he added.
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