
VLADIMIR Putin unleashed a fresh wave of terror on Ukraine overnight – just hours after Donald Trump claimed the Kremlin tyrant “wants to end the war.”
The Russian dictator ordered brutal new strikes across four regions – Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Poltava and Zaporizhzhia – pounding civilian targets and torching a food warehouse, even as diplomatic wrangling played out in Washington.
In a savage answer to peace talks, the assault came despite Trump boasting of a “productive” two-and-a-half-hour call with Putin – and urging both sides to “stop right now at the battle line.”
The US president said: “They should stop the war immediately… both sides should go home, go to their families, stop the killing and that should be it.”
“I think he wants to end the war. I spoke to him for two and a half hours… He wants to get it ended.”
But Putin’s missiles told a different story.

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Explosions ripped through Ukraine’s heartland overnight.
Zaporizhzhia was hit three times, and in Poltava, a civilian food depot went up in flames.
Residential and administrative buildings were flattened in the ferocious bombardment.
In the Black Sea, Ukraine’s navy blew up a Russian marine drone “threatening civilian shipping” – dramatic footage captured the moment the Kremlin’s floating bomb erupted in a fireball.
All this while Moscow gloated that Trump had refused to give Kyiv the game-changing Tomahawk cruise missiles Zelensky desperately pleaded for.
The meeting – described by insiders as “tense, frank, and at times uncomfortable” – saw the Ukrainian leader offer “thousands of drones” in exchange for the missiles, which can smash targets up to 2,500km away deep inside Russia.
“President Trump has a big opportunity to end this war,” Zelensky said.
“That’s where we can work together.”
But Trump, citing fears of a “dangerous escalation”, blocked the deal for now – though he hinted they could still be on the table if Putin fails to back down.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over without talking about Tomahawks,” Trump said.
Zelensky made clear the fight is not Ukraine’s to end alone.
“We have to stop where we are… the president is right… I agree with the president,” he said.
“Both sides have to stop but with us it’s about Putin – because we didn’t begin this war.”
Mad Vlad’s latest assault underscores the growing doubt over Trump’s faith in Putin’s intentions.
The US president – fresh from sealing a Gaza ceasefire – plans to meet Putin in Hungary within weeks to try and “end this inglorious war.”
But history is repeating. After previous cosy chats with Trump, Putin has doubled down on the war rather than winding it down.
And Moscow itself was rocked overnight by fresh chaos.
A giant explosion tore through the Avangard explosives plant in Sterlitamak, killing three and wounding nine in what authorities fear was sabotage.
It was the second mysterious blast at a Sterlitamak site since August, when terrified workers “fled like cockroaches.”
Ukraine, meanwhile, kept up its pressure with a drone strike on the Veshkayma high-voltage substation in Ulyanovsk, causing power grid chaos.
And Russia’s glittering Black Sea resort Sochi endured a second night of sirens and explosions as terrified tourists fled to underground shelters.
In occupied Crimea, dramatic new footage showed a Ukrainian drone turning a vast Gvardeyskoye oil depot into an inferno – deepening fuel shortages across the peninsula.

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Trump insists he can broker a ceasefire – but his balancing act is showing strain. He praised Ukraine’s dogged defence, saying: “I don’t know why he continues with this war, he should have won that war in one week.
“He just doesn’t want to end that war. And I think it’s making him look very bad.”
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