“He’s killing a lot of people,” Trump said to reporters at an airport in New Jersey before returning to Washington.
“I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin, I’ve known him for a long time…”
Trump’s comments followed Russia’s massive air attack on Ukraine over the weekend, during which more than 600 drones and dozens of missiles were launched from Friday to Sunday in one of the heaviest attacks of the war to date.
At least 12 people were killed, including three children, and 79 injured in strikes that targeted numerous cities including Kyiv overnight on May 25. The Russian forces attacked the city of Kyiv, as well as Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Sumy, Poltava regions. More than 80 residential buildings have been damaged.
Trump, who has pushed for a ceasefire in the war now in its fourth year, recently held a two-hour phone call with President Putin during which Russia reiterated its refusal for a full ceasefire in the war in Ukraine while the U.S. failed to respond with any significant pressure.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump once again stated that new sanctions on Moscow could be on the table.
“I’ve always gotten along with him,” Trump said of Putin.
“But he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people (…) We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don’t like it at all,” he added.
In a new Truth Social post later that day, Trump said Putin has gone “absolutely” crazy and warned that if he didn’t stop his actions, it could bring about the collapse of 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 then shifted his attention to President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he has frequently criticized. Zelensky had earlier condemned the lack of response from the U.S. and other nations following Russia’s latest missile and drone assault. Zelensky called for stronger sanctions on Russia and added that “America’s silence, and the silence of others around the world, only encourages Putin.”
“Likewise, President Zelensky is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does,” Trump wrote, adding, “Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”
Earlier in the day, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg reacted to Russia’s overnight large-scale attack on Ukraine, calling for the end to hostilities.
“The indiscriminate killing of women and children at night in their homes is a clear violation of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols designed to protect innocents. These attacks are shameful,” Kellogg said on X without explicitly naming Russia.
“Stop the killing. Ceasefire now,” he added.
