Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine as US ceasefire push stumbles

Olesia Safronova, Bloomberg News on Apr 30, 2025

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Russia intensified its attacks across Ukraine’s frontline and several cities as the success of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring a rapid end to the war look increasingly doubtful.

Ukraine’s General Staff reported 177 clashes on the battlefield in the country’s south-east early Wednesday with Russian troops “rushing” deeper into Ukraine.

“The Russians are trying to break defensive lines in the Zaporizhzhia region,” a spokesman for the Ukrainian military’s southern command, Vladyslav Voloshyn, said late Tuesday. The situation in the Kherson Region in the south has become “quite tense” in recent days, he said.

Russia also launched significant drone attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv early Wednesday, hitting residential areas, killing one civilian and injuring 50, according to local authorities.

The hard push by Moscow’s troops comes as the Kremlin takes a maximalist line in peace negotiations brokered by the U.S. While Trump envoy Steve Witkoff sought to persuade President Vladimir Putin that Russia should agree to a ceasefire that halts fighting along the current frontlines, the Russian leader insisted Moscow must take full control of four regions of Ukraine which it claims but doesn’t fully occupy, Bloomberg News reported.

Russia declared the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Regions in 2022, a move that was denounced as a violation of international law by the United Nations and much of the world.

The U.S., which had sought a permanent ceasefire by April 30 as Trump marks the first 100 days of his new term, expressed disappointment with Putin’s reluctance to accept an unconditional, long-term ceasefire. Trump is “increasingly frustrated” with the leaders of both Russia and Ukraine, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.

Trump has pointed to Kyiv as the obstacle to securing a ceasefire, telling broadcaster ABC late Tuesday that he believed Putin “wants peace.” But Moscow’s intense attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks have led Trump to voice more pointed criticism of Russia, saying in a TruthSocial post on Saturday that Putin might not want to stop the war.

Similarly, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News on Tuesday that it was “over to Putin” to secure a ceasefire following Ukraine’s willingness to engage with Washington.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said repeatedly that Kyiv will never recognize occupied territories as Russian and proposed to continue pressure on Moscow, including strengthening sanctions.

“We are identifying precisely those pressure points of Russia that will most effectively push Moscow toward diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said in an address late Tuesday to nation. “We are also preparing for talks with the United States on new sanctions steps,” Zelenskyy said.