MOSCOW/KYIV: U.S. President Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” by unleashing the largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine and said he was weighing new sanctions on Moscow, though he also scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Trump posted the remark on Truth Social as sleeping Ukrainians woke to a third consecutive night of Russian aerial attacks, listening for hours to drones buzzing near their homes and eruptions of Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 355 drones and nine cruise missiles against Ukraine overnight, a huge salvo that the air force’s spokesman told Reuters made it Russia’s largest drone attack of the war to date.
“Something has happened to him (Putin). He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said of the Russian president on Truth Social, referring to the previous night’s attack by Russia.
“I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”
Trump also criticised Zelenskiy, posting that the Ukrainian leader “is doing his Country no favours by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”
The Kremlin, asked about Trump’s specific remarks about Putin being “crazy”, thanked the U.S. people and Trump in person for their assistance in launching peace negotiations but suggested Trump and others might be emotionally overloaded.
“This is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overload of everyone absolutely and with emotional reactions,“ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The Ukrainian air force said the third Russian aerial attack in a row hit targets in five locations, but did not elaborate, implying military damage.
A 14-year-old boy was reported injured in the Black Sea region of Odesa. Residential buildings and industrial facilities were damaged in western Ukraine, officials said.
The Kremlin said the attacks on Ukraine were directed at military targets and that the strikes were a response to significant Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian targets.
Zelenskiy, in a post on X, did not directly address Trump’s criticism, but said the world appeared to be spending more effort on dialogue with Putin than with actually exerting real pressure on the Kremlin chief.
Russia, Zelenskiy said, can only be constrained by force, and called again for additional sanctions on Russia.
‘I’M NOT HAPPY’
Speaking to reporters at the airport in Morristown, New Jersey, Trump said of Putin: “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. What the hell happened to him? Right? He’s killing a lot of people. I’m not happy about that.”
He raised the possibility of imposing more sanctions on Russia in response to the ongoing attacks.
In the biggest aerial assault of the war, Russia pummelled Ukrainian cities and other targets with at least 367 drones and missiles overnight into Sunday, killing at least 12 people, including three children in the northern region of Zhytomyr, Ukrainian officials said.
The Russian attack was the largest of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people.
Trump has been pressuring Russia and Ukraine to end the more than three-year war, but the two sides remain far apart – and while major powers talk, the war is intensifying and Russian forces are advancing in eastern Ukraine.
Swarms of drones are being launched by both sides while fierce fighting is underway along key parts of the front.
The Kremlin says it is conducting what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine to protect Russia from NATO encroachment on its borders. Ukraine says Russia launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
