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The bombardment came after Washington’s decision to suspend intelligence sharing and hit a region critical for Ukrainian logistics and support.
March 8, 2025, 5:43 a.m. ET
Russian strikes killed 20 people in the war-torn eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk on Friday night, a sign that Moscow is stepping up bombardments of cities critical for Ukrainian logistics and support and taking advantage of Washington’s decision to pause military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Facebook on Saturday that Russian forces had fired two ballistic missiles into the small city of Dobropillia, and that after emergency services arrived, another Russian attack had rained down on the rescuers. The strikes killed 11 people in the city, according to Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration.
The attack came a week after the disastrous meeting in the White House with Mr. Zelensky and President Trump and Vice President JD Vance. A deal that was supposed to have been signed during Mr. Zelensky’s visit — and that would have promised some future U.S. involvement in Ukraine — fell apart. Since then, the United States has suspended military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, saying that Mr. Zelensky has not demonstrated that Ukraine is ready for peace.
On Friday, Mr. Trump was asked by reporters in the Oval Office whether President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was capitalizing on the void left by the United States’ dropping its aid to Ukraine.
“I actually think he’s doing what anyone else would do,” Mr. Trump said.
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At the same time, Mr. Trump complained that Russia was “bombing the hell out of Ukraine,” and threatened sanctions against Russia unless it stopped attacking.
