Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky mocked U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday for calling Russian president Vladimir Putin a “humanitarian” as the two countries exchanged overnight strikes.
“Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian ‘humanitarians’ since yesterday evening. They used 21 missiles. Unfortunately, numerous sites across the city have been hit and damaged: ordinary residential buildings, energy facilities, infrastructure at one of the railway stations and the metro, shopping malls, and businesses,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Zelensky’s pointed words came one day after Witkoff met with Putin in St. Petersburg and called him a “humanitarian” following the release of Stephen Hubbard, a U.S. citizen who was detained in Russia for allegedly fighting on behalf of Ukraine.
President Donald Trump gave his two cents on Witkoff’s “humanitarian” comment on Wednesday in the Oval Office, saying Witkoff could have meant it for the “particular purpose” of Hubbard’s release.
“I wouldn’t say anything one way or the other,” Trump added.
The overnight strikes also follow Putin’s agreement on Wednesday to sit down for trilateral peace talks with the United States and Ukraine. Zelensky also said Wednesday that he would be amenable to a peace deal that would hold fighting at the current front lines.
Within 24 hours of this progress, Zelensky said Russia launched the 21-missile barrage on Kyiv, while Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed Ukraine launched over 600 drones at the capital overnight.
Zelensky said 34 people were injured and two people were killed in the overnight attack on Kyiv, while Sobyanin said two Russians were injured in the drone attacks, per Belarus’s Nexta media outlet.
Zelensky addressed his relationship with Trump and the Trump administration in an interview with podcaster Steven Bartlett on Thursday that aired after he mocked Witkoff’s words on X.
“I’ve tried many times to tell the President of the United States: understand us. This is a huge compromise just to hold the lines where we are. Trump can bring Putin to the negotiating table very easily. The way President Trump talks about me, he needs to adopt that kind of rhetoric about Putin,” Zelensky said.
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Trump has taken aim at Zelensky this week as well, saying it may be “time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.”
“Zelensky doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Trump said on Monday. “Zelensky is a man that should have had this war settled a long time ago. If he would have listened to me, he would have made a much better deal a long time ago, and he’d have a million people living from his side.”