Zelensky: Only Ukraine Decides the Fate of Its Territories, Trump Threatens Putin with Sanctions
"Our position has not changed: only Ukrainians have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian. The Constitution of Ukraine states that all temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian people," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized to journalists in Kyiv.
Recent comments by Trump regarding Vladimir Putin's actions have drawn international attention. On Saturday, Trump criticized Putin for recent attacks on Ukrainian civilians, saying that "maybe he doesn't want to end the war." Following a meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump expressed doubt that Putin might need to be approached differently.
"There was no reason why Putin had to fire missiles into civilian areas, cities and villages in recent days," Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. "This makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to end the war, that he's just stringing me along, and he needs to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?' Too many people are dying!!!"
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius expressed skepticism on Sunday regarding the US peace plan for Ukraine, stating that Ukraine must carefully consider what it agrees to in a US-brokered peace agreement. "Ukraine has of course known for some time that a sustainable and credible ceasefire or peace agreement may involve territorial concessions," Pistorius said in an interview with German public broadcaster ARD. "But these concessions certainly do not go... as far as the latest proposal from the US president."
The United States has not disclosed the details of its peace plan, but news portal Axios, citing Ukrainian officials, reported that the US might offer de facto recognition of Russia's occupation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine. The US proposal may also include freezing the front lines and accepting Russian control over Crimea in exchange for peace.
After weeks of seemingly favoring Vladimir Putin in negotiations, Trump signaled a new approach to the Russian president on Saturday. Trump made these comments shortly after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome before Pope Francis' funeral ceremony.
Pistorius welcomed the meeting but noted, "At the same time, one can say that things are changing almost daily. The signals (from Trump) are very contradictory – sometimes very friendly and sometimes very unfriendly. I would say that in the end, actions speak for themselves."
Meanwhile, military operations continue. Ukraine launched a drone attack on Russia's Bryansk region overnight into Monday, targeting an electronics factory there. The governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, reported on Monday morning that dozens of Ukrainian drones were destroyed in the region's airspace, and civilian infrastructure was damaged in the attack.
"Air defense units of the Russian Ministry of Defense destroyed several dozen unmanned aerial vehicles over our territory," the governor wrote on social media overnight. The Ukrainian attack caused damage to civilian objects and infrastructure, Bogomaz added.
Pro-Ukrainian social media channels reported that the drone attack targeted the Kremniy EL electronics factory in the Bryansk region. This is a key manufacturer of microchips and electronic components for advanced Russian weapons systems, including the radars for the Pantsir air defense systems, S-300, S-400, and S-500 anti-aircraft missiles, Iskander and Kalibr cruise missiles, and Topol-M and Bulava ballistic missiles.
Avaldatud 28/04/2025
