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Putin ignores Pope Francis' funeral and Trump's demand to 'stop the bloodshed NOW' as he launches new deadly kamikaze drone strikes in Ukraine
@Source: dailymail.co.uk
Vladimir Putin has ignored Donald Trump's latest call for a peace deal with Ukraine as Russia launched yet another deadly drone strike in the war-torn nation on the same day as Pope Francis' funeral.
Strikes in Ukraine were underway today in at least six regions even as the US president reportedly met Volodymyr Zelensky in Rome before the pontiff was laid to rest.
Putin was not on the guest-list to attend Francis' funeral as there is currently an International Criminal Court warrant out for his arrest.
One strike hit a residential building in Kamianske in Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one man and wounding four.
A woman was said to be in a 'serious' condition, with two apartments in a nine-storey tower set ablaze by the brutal Russian onslaught.
'I heard the explosion, ran outside, everything was on fire, many people were screaming,' said a resident named Dmytro.
'We started to panic, and ran to the forest.
'The children were very scared. Two windows in our house were broken.'
Separately, a video showed a fireball explosion on the outskirts of Dnipro, and Kropyvnytskyi was also hit by drones.
The city of Kharkiv was also attacked, leaving a 14-year-old boy wounded from a Shahed drone strike.
An explosion was also reported at the Burevestnik defence plant in Kyiv, a key war-linked industrial facility, which had thick black smoke rising from it.
Russia also bombed Ukraine on Friday, killing three people with a drone strike on an apartment building in a southeastern city.
Putin's relentless attacks on Ukraine come after Trump took to social media on Thursday to urge the Russian leader to agree to a peace deal with Ukraine.
'I am not happy with the Russian trikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing', the US president wrote on Truth Social.
Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!'
Putin's relentless attacks on Ukraine will only fuel suspicions that he has little intention to agree to a peace deal.
On Friday, Trump said shortly after arriving in Rome for Pope Francis' funeral that it was a 'good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine', after his envoy, Steve Witkoff, made a visit to Moscow to meet with Putin.
'They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to 'finish it off,' Trump said.
'Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!'
Progress on ending the war has seemed elusive in the months since Trump returned to the White House, and his previous claims of imminent breakthroughs have failed to come to fruition.
Despite a rare admonishment of Putin this week, Trump's focus has largely been on urging Zelensky to cut a deal that would involve ceding territory to Ukraine's invader.
In an interview with Time magazine, Trump described Crimea as a place where Russia has 'had their submarines' and 'the people speak largely Russian.'
'Crimea will stay with Russia,' Trump said. 'And Zelensky understands that, and everybody understands that it's been with them for a long time. It's been with them long before Trump came along.'
Russia's latest attacks on Ukraine come as world leaders and Catholic faithful gather at the Vatican today to bade farewell to Pope Francis.
Some 200,000 people flocked to the funeral in St Peter's Square this morning, where Francis was euologised as the people's pope.
Hundreds of foreign dignitaries have attended the funeral today, with Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron pictured spotted sitting front row.
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