The screaming sounds of air alerts and blasts woke 46-year-old Anzhela Zalivadna up at 1:15 am on Thursday. Still rousing, she wondered if she was back in her hometown of Mariupol, where she experienced a bombing back in 2022. Or maybe she was back in the ruined library with her crying son after Russia’s missile attack on the children’s hospital last July?
Boom, boom—she heard more explosions.
No, she was in her 13-floor apartment block in Kyiv under a massive attack, she realized, now fully awakened. The nightmare was back.
Russia struck Kyiv Thursday night in its worst attack on the city in more than a year, killing at least 12 and injuring 90 others. The bombing prompted a rare rebuke from President Donald Trump, who said he was “not happy” with the strikes on Truth Social. “Vladimir, STOP!” Trump wrote Thursday morning. “Not necessary, and very bad timing.”
Ukrainians had hoped that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody campaign would inspire Trump to action and bring peace. Indeed, Trump called for peace in his post, writing, “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”
But any hopes for peace have been shot since Trump announced a proposed deal in which Ukraine would have to cede Crimea, which the Constitution establishes as an “inseparable constituent part” of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the proposal a nonstarter on Tuesday, saying his hands are tied.
The war was chasing the mother and son like a madman with a gun in hand. Zalivada jumped out of bed and rushed to look for her 10-year-old son, Yaroslav. Her boy was already hiding in the hallway. Yaroslav knew too well what kind of destruction the Russian missiles could cause: One of them ruined Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital, which treated him for cancer and diabetes last July.
“This is so weird—Trump wants to force us into peace while shaking hands with Putin,” Zalivada told the Daily Beast in an interview on Thursday.
Like many Ukrainians, Zalivada hoped that Putin’s violent attacks on their cities would spur Trump to action. But on Wednesday, hours before Russian missiles fell on Kyiv, Ukraine learned that the White House was debating lifting sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, prompting local observers to question what Trump’s strategy is—or whether there is one at all.
“Is Trump going to start improving relations with Russia without a peace deal for Ukraine?” said Ivan Yakovina, a popular political analyst, on Facebook on Wednesday. “He might, but that would be a totally unjustified gift to Putin.”
Kyiv’s magnolias, lilacs, and Sakura bloomed this month, unleashing a most wonderful array of scents.
“What a shame it is to die in spring, the monsters who rained missiles and drones on our cities last night must love war more than peace, death more than life,” 36-year-old Tetiana Hrytsenko, a mother of two, told the Daily Beast. “Of course, we all understand that Trump, the major peace broker, is trying to force us to surrender, since he cannot make Putin stop bombing us. I wish he were here with us in Kyiv last night and saw the eyes of our children when they heard the blasts.”
Smoke was rising as Kyiv burned. The largest children’s hospital, Ohmatdyt, was once again moving all its little patients, including preemies, to bomb shelters. Ambulances brought two more wounded children. According to the United Nations’ report)” href=”https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/average-least-16-children-killed-or-injured-ukraine-every-week-escalation-war-nears__;!!LsXw!WmNq5lj0ofx-jHzrpuzVG9K-CFAkmQ8p14I2nUNS9bfyOTgeqo6wFXvarz9ObdhAsCGHh6iqKz6sRvasRoA9uP50BNrSzg$” rel=””>report, Putin’s war on Ukraine kills an average of 16 children every week.
“This is so painful to see how our children are suffering from the war—we see wounded kids getting paralyzed, we see them losing their limbs, and the entire world seems to be just watching indifferently,” Yelizaveta Karpenko, the hospital’s spokeswoman, told the Daily Beast on Thursday. “Nobody seems capable of stopping Russia—the bloom of our nation, not only our young men but also children, get constantly killed.”
Kyiv’s city hall reported at least 100 killed and wounded in Thursday night’s bombing, including siblings Nikita, 21, and Sofia, 19. A group of teenagers hoped all day that rescuers would dig their 17-year-old friend out from under the rubble in the most ruined of five hit Kyiv’s districts, leafy and thickly populated Sviatoshenskyi. They hoped he was trapped alive under the rubble.
Hours passed. They continued to watch pieces of the mostly ruined two-floor apartment building falling, while emergency workers, covered in dust, looked for victims.
Back in her apartment, 10-year-old Yaroslav was going to sleep on Thursday night. Just in case, his mother moved his couch and his laptop to the hallway.
“One hundred people were wounded and killed in Kyiv only today, hundreds of people ended up homeless in one night, like us in Mariupol back in 2022; Russian peace terms are ugly, unthinkable, but this nightmare has to stop—everybody is longing for peaceful nights.”
The post Why Trump Should See the Children’s Eyes as Putin Bombs Kyiv appeared first on The Daily Beast.
