Russia’s deadly missile and ‘Kamikaze’ Shahed drone attacks on Ukraine’s civilians have suddenly halted following US President Donald Trump’s outburst over the delayed peace deal
Russia’s deadly overnight drone blasts on Ukraine fell silent for the first time in months last night following US President Donald Trump ’s anti-Putin outburst-as ground fighting continued along the frontline and Kremlin chiefs plan their next move behind the scenes.
Trump threatened the beleaguered Kremlin chief with oil sanctions and other punishments over his delaying a ceasefire and even said he was “p****d off” with him because of the lack of progress in ending the bloody war in Ukraine. But overnight defence teams reported the skies above Ukraine were void of Russia ’s terrible weapons which have attacked civilians for years.
It was the first time since October last year that the Kremlin’s lethal Iranian-designed Shahed long distance drones did not attack any Ukrainian targets. There were also no reports of Russian missile or aerial bomb strikes hitting civilians. It was not immediately clear if Putin had been intimidated by the Trump outburst, or how long Russia would pause its murderous attacks on Ukraine.
But it was a dramatic change from Russia’s nightly debilitating attacks on Ukraine, and comes only two days after Putin vowed to “finish them off”, referring to Kyiv’s armed forces. Ukraine also staged hardly any strikes on Russia, with reports of just three drones being downed over Bryansk region.
The surprise lull in the Kremlin’s relentless onslaught came hours after Trump had said: “I want to see him make a deal so that we stop Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers and other people from being killed.” The US president said: “I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will. I don’t want to go secondary tariffs on his oil.”
The lull caught Russia’s usually beligerent war channels by surprise, withone even suggesting the war might now be on a “pause,” even though fighting on the ground continued.
The Fighterbomber Telegram channel said: “There were no strikes with long-range weapons – drones, missiles, [aerial bombs] – against targets deep inside Ukraine tonight, for the first time in months, not on any targets.” “The same silence….about overnight strikes on our territory.” The channel speculated that “the war is put on pause” despite no “ceremonies” announcing a truce.
The Russian lull came after Volodymyr Zelensky had accused Putin of “openly mocking” US attempts to seal a ceasefire “with constant new drone strikes, constant brutal shelling. He said: “This must be stopped only by pressure and Russia must be forced to peace.”
In fact, in isolated areas of the frontline, attacks continued in both directions. In Horlivka, Donetsk region, the Russians accused Ukraine of striking a trolleybus, wounding at least a dozen people, in a drone attack. Late yesterday, a woman was killed and five wounded in a Russian assault on Malokaterynivka in Zaporizhzhia region, one of 226 strikes on 13 settlements. Senior Dnipropetrovsk official Mykola Lukashuk also reported continued Russian strikes on Nikopol.
The overnight pause came after Russia has been recently swarming its attacks on populous areas aiming to overload Ukrainian missile defences, maximising destruction. Trump threatened massive sanctions on countries buying Russian oil – for example China – unless Putin fell into line.
Finland’s president Alexander Stubb who met Trump at the weekend told Sky News: “I came out with an impression that obviously he’s the only person who can broker a peace, a ceasefire, because he’s the only one that Putin is afraid of and in that sense, respects.” He said: “We were talking a lot about the ceasefire, the frustrations he had that Russia was not committing to it.”