Russian Attack Kills 12 In Ukraine Despite Trump Claim

Twelve Ukrainians were killed in a Russian drone strike just days after Donald Trump claimed Vladimir Putin had promised to temporarily stop attacking his neighbour.

A bus carrying miners in the Dnipropetrovsk region were targeted in the deadly assault.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiha said it showed the Russian pesident was pursuing a “war against civilians contrary to peace efforts”.

At least two others were killed in separate Russian attacks on Sunday, the Ukrainian authorities said.

The Russian strikes fly in the face of claims made by Trump on Thursday, in which he claimed Putin had told him no attacks would take place for a week as Ukraine endures a spell of bitterly cold weather.

The US president said: “They said they’ve never experienced cold like that, and I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week and he agreed to do that.

“And I have to tell you, it was very nice. People said, ‘Don’t waste the call, you’re not going to get that’. And he did it and we’re very happy that they did it because on top of everything else that’s not what they need is missiles coming into their towns and cities.”

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had agreed to not strike Kyiv specifically, according to the Moscow Times.

“I can say that President Trump did indeed make a personal request to President Putin to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week, until February 1, as a way to create more hospitable conditions for negotiations.”