Washington (TDI): US President Donald Trump made it clear he is losing patience with Vladimir Putin, leveling some of his sharpest criticism at the Russian leader as Moscow attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third straight night.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said in a statement on Sunday night.
He said Putin is “needlessly killing a lot of people,” adding that cities in Ukraine are being pounded by missiles and drones for no reason.
The assault was the largest aerial attack since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to the officials in Kyiv. It killed at least twelve people and wounded dozens other.
Trump cautioned that if Putin wants to conquer all of Ukraine, it will “lead to the downfall of Russia!” But the US President expressed frustration with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky as well, stating that he is doing Ukraine no favors by talking the way he does.
“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” Trump added.
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Trump has increasingly voiced irritation at Putin and the inability to resolve the now 3-year-old war, which the US President promised he would immediately end as he campaigned to return to the White House.
He had long boasted of his friendly relationship with Russian President and repeatedly emphasized that Moscow is more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace agreement.
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But in May, Trump urged Putin to stop attacking Ukraine after Moscow launched another deadly barrage of attacks on the capital city Kyiv, and he has repeatedly expressed his frustration that the war in Ukraine is continuing.
The European Union (EU) has imposed new sanctions on Moscow this month in response to Putin’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire. But while Trump has threatened to step up sanctions and tariffs on Russia, he hasn’t acted so far.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
