US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has threatened to impose “tariffs and stuff” on Russia if it does not end its war on Ukraine within the next 10 to 12 days.

Trump has said he is reducing a previous deadline that he set for Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the war down from 50 days to less than two weeks.

Speaking to reporters, he threatened to impose “tariffs and stuff” on Russia if Putin fails to meet the deadline, but conceded he did not know if the measures would have any effect.

He said that he has not heard from Putin recently, adding that “it’s a shame.”

After the first deadline from Trump, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had “taken note” and that it remained “committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests”. 

Russia mounted attacks on Ukraine today that killed at least 25 people, according to Ukraine, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of wilfully targeting the prison in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Russia claims as its own territory, killing 16 people and wounding dozens of others.

“It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Zelenskyy said on social media in response.

The Kremlin denied the claim. “The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,” Peskov said.

Ukraine’s justice ministry said Russian forces hit the prison in Bilenke with four glide bombs. Police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 wounded.

Bricks and debris and blown out windows were strewn on the ground, according to images released by the ministry.

The facility’s perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added.

Rescue workers searched for survivors in pictures released by the region’s emergency services.

A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility. The source said there were no Russian war prisoners at the centre.

Nadiya, a resident of Bilenke, told AFP the attack damaged her house.

“At about 10 minutes to six, a neighbour called and said: ‘Come quickly, your roof is gone.’ Is that normal? Not a single window is intact,” the 74-year-old said.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia also launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones.

One attack targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding 22 people.

“Putin is rejecting a ceasefire, avoiding a leaders’ meeting, and prolonging the war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.

“He will only end his terror if we break the spine of his economy,” he added, calling on Western allies to consolidate around sanctions on Moscow.

“Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23 years old,” Zelenskyy said.

Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said.

In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region’s acting governor said.

Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia’s summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022.

The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the front line today, saying its forces had taken two more villages, one in the Donetsk region and another in Zaporizhzhia region.

Zelenskyy signed a law today allowing Ukrainian people over 60 to join the armed forces, which are struggling to find recruits as the Russian invasion drags through a fourth year.

The law will allow them to sign a one-year contract for non-combat roles if they pass medical tests, according to an explanatory note on the parliament’s website.

“A significant number of citizens aged 60 and over have expressed a strong desire to voluntarily join the defence of the state,” the note said.

“It is necessary to involve a larger number of people who wish to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” it said.

Ukraine has launched several initiatives to attract more people into the armed forces — including with a one-year contract and financial incentives for people aged 18 to 24.

It also lowered the mobilisation age from 27 to 25 in April 2024 — resisting calls from the US administration to lower it to 18.

© AFP 2025