Here is where things stand on Monday, April 28:
Fighting
- Russia launched nearly 150 drones and missiles at Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least four people. The Ukrainian Air Force said that 57 of the drones were intercepted and another 67 were jammed.
- North Korea confirmed for the first time on Monday that it had dispatched troops to fight alongside the Russian military to help retake parts of the Kursk region occupied by Ukrainian forces.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his personal gratitude to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying, “Our Korean friends acted based on a sense of solidarity, justice and genuine comradeship”.
- The US State Department expressed alarm over the admission and called for Pyongyang to immediately end its military support for Russia.
Diplomacy and politics
- United States President Donald Trump appeared for the first time to suggest that he is reversing his previous trust in Putin. Trump said on Sunday that he is “very disappointed” over Russia’s ongoing missile strikes against Ukraine. “I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal,” the US leader told reporters.
- However, Trump also claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy might be willing to “give up” Crimea to Russia, despite Kyiv’s consistent refusal to cede territory.
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the Trump administration could pull out of ceasefire talks unless progress is made soon. “We cannot continue to dedicate time and resources to this effort if it’s not going to come to fruition,” Rubio told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, adding that a ceasefire deal “needs to happen soon”.
- Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov stated Moscow’s readiness for a negotiated settlement but noted that there were unresolved elements. “We are ready to reach a deal,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation, adding that certain points needed to be “fine-tuned”.
- Previously received US assistance will not be factored into an upcoming minerals agreement with Washington, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on Sunday. Shmyhal added that there was “good progress” on the agreement after meeting US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
- German Minister for Defence Boris Pistorius has warned Ukraine against accepting Trump’s ceasefire proposal involving land concessions to Russia, calling it “capitulation”.
