Trump: Russian attacks ‘disgusting’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump threatened fresh sanctions Thursday while slamming Russia’s military actions in Ukraine as “disgusting,” as strikes on Kyiv killed at least 26 people.

“Russia — I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing. I think it’s disgusting,” Trump told reporters.

Trump also said he would send his special envoy Steve Witkoff, currently in Israel, to visit Russia next.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already met Witkoff multiple times in Moscow, before Trump’s efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin came to a grinding halt.

Washington has given Moscow until the end of next week to cease hostilities in Ukraine, under threat of severe economic sanctions.

Trump reiterated the deadline on Thursday.

“We’re going to put sanctions. I don’t know that sanctions bother him,” the US president said, referring to Putin.

Trump has previously threatened that new measures could mean “secondary tariffs” targeting Russia’s remaining trade partners, such as China and India. This would further stifle Russia, but would risk significant international disruption.

The US president began his second term with his own rosy predictions that the war in Ukraine — raging since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022 — would soon end.

In recent weeks, Trump has increasingly voiced frustration with Putin over Moscow’s unrelenting offensive.

Death toll rises

The death toll from Thursday’s Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv has risen to 26, including three children, Ukraine’s interior ministry said.

The toll previously stood at 16, including two children, but was revised Friday after “rescuers retrieved 10 bodies from the rubble of the residential building in Sviatoshynsky district, including the body of a 2-year-old child,” the ministry posted on Telegram.

It also said 159 people were wounded in Thursday’s strikes, including 16 children.

One person was also killed in a Russian attack early Friday on Zaporizhzhia, in southeast Ukraine, the region’s military administration said on Telegram.