Putin Praised as a 'Humanitarian' — Then 21 Missiles Rained Down on Kyiv

Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv. Photo: Jorge Láscar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (representative image).

Three minutes. That is the gap between Donald Trump telling reporters his administration was "the closest we've been" to settling the war in Ukraine — and the first Russian missiles slamming into Kyiv, according to CNN. Three minutes. Peace one breath, warheads the next.

It had been a strange day even before that. On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin sat down for a three-hour meeting with Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, at the Constantine Palace in St Petersburg. Putin opened the session by announcing he was freeing Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old former US service member detained in Russia since 2022. And Witkoff, on camera, paid his host the kind of compliment that will now live in infamy: "You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again."

The night the missiles came

Hours later, Russia launched one of the heaviest attacks of the war on the Ukrainian capital. Twenty-one ballistic missiles — Iskander, Zircon, Onyx and S-400 types — and roughly 210 drones, in three waves over about six hours, with Kyiv as the main target. President Volodymyr Zelensky said at least two people were killed and 34 injured, five of them children. The bombs hit Kyiv's historic centre, monastery buildings, residential homes, shops, cafes, a railway station's infrastructure, the metro and shopping malls, he said.

The Sun's team was in Kyiv when it happened. Air-raid sirens sounded at 10pm on Wednesday and the reporters ran for cover to an underground metro station near Maidan Square, then hunkered down in their hotel's bomb shelter until 4am, hearing the muffled thud of explosions above. "We ran for cover to an underground metro station near Maidan Square," the paper reported. Millions of people across the city did the same.

And here is the detail that should stop everyone cold: according to the Ukrainian Air Force, not a single one of the ballistic missiles that hit Kyiv was intercepted. Ukraine is facing a critical shortage of US-made Patriot interceptor missiles, CNN reported, and sirens were still blaring in the capital on Thursday.

Zelensky's answer: mockery

Zelensky answered Witkoff's "humanitarian" compliment with savage irony on X. "Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian 'humanitarians' since yesterday evening," he wrote. "They used, among other weapons, three ballistic missiles with cluster warheads." He said the weapons hit ordinary residential buildings, energy facilities, metro infrastructure, shopping malls and businesses.

"This is another extraordinarily revealing strike — revealing because it was no accident," he added. "The choice of weapon was deliberate, the choice of target area was deliberate, and so was the intent to inflict as much loss and damage on civilians as possible."

For his part, Trump seemed keen to walk the comment back without disowning his envoy. Asked in the Oval Office on Wednesday about Witkoff's praise, he said 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 attacks also followed Putin's agreement in principle, at Witkoff's request, to resume trilateral peace talks with Ukraine and the United States after November 10. Zelensky has said he would accept a deal holding the fighting at the current front lines. Within 24 hours, Moscow answered with the barrage.

What this means for the talks

Here is the honest reading. Either the Kremlin's left hand doesn't know what its right hand is doing, or the missile barrage was the message: talk all you like, we bomb what we want. Zelensky called for rapid delivery of air-defence missiles, which tells you what he thinks of the November 10 talks' chances — you don't beg for interceptors on the eve of a breakthrough.

And there's a brutal symmetry in the numbers. Putin freed one American prisoner and was saluted as a humanitarian; hours later, two people were dead in Kyiv and a shopping mall was on fire. If the White House wants the world to take its peace timeline seriously, it might start by explaining what "closest we've been" means when the missiles arrive three minutes later.

Sources

• CNN, "Massive strikes hit Kyiv hours after Putin agrees to fresh peace talks" (21 October 2026) — cnn.com
• The New York Post, "Russia pounds Ukraine's capital Kyiv with missiles and drones, hours after agreeing to peace talks" (22 October 2026) — nypost.com
• The Sun, "Moment Sun comes under Russian missile fire in Ukraine hours after fawning US envoy praises 'humanitarian' tyrant Putin" (22 October 2026) — thesun.co.uk
• Washington Examiner, "Zelensky mocks Steve Witkoff's comment calling Putin a 'humanitarian'" (22 October 2026) — washingtonexaminer.com