150 Russian drones hit Ukraine as Trump says he doubts Putin's desire for peace

KYIV: Russia launched a sweeping drone assault and air strikes across Ukraine early Sunday, killing at least four people, officials said, after US President Trump cast doubt over Russian President Vladimir Putin's willingness to end the war.
Three people died and four were wounded in air strikes in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the regional prosecutor's office said. Another person died and a 14-year-old girl was wounded in a drone attack on the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region that was hit for the third straight night, governor Serhii Lysak said.
The attacks came hours after Russia claimed to have regained control over the remaining parts of the Kursk region that Ukrainian forces seized in in Aug 2024. Russian agencies even quoted Kremlin as saying that Putin telephoned his top commanders in Kursk to congratulate them on "victory" and the end of the operation to expel Ukrainian forces from the region in western Russia.
Ukrainian officials, however, said the fighting in Kursk was still under way.

Trump said Saturday he doubts Putin wants to end the more than three-year-old war. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were " very close to a deal". "There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days," Trump wrote in a post after attending the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican, where he met briefly with Ukraine President Zelensky. Trump also hinted at further sanctions against Russia.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the coming week would be "very critical", and the US would need to "make a determination about whether this is an endeavour that we want to continue to be involved in." agencies