Trump hits out at ‘crazy’ Putin, criticises Zelensky, after Russian attack

Washington: Donald Trump has called Russian President Vladimir Putin “crazy”, while also criticising Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, after the largest Russian attack yet on Ukraine left 12 people dead.

Russia fired 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, overnight on Saturday, most of which Ukraine said it had shot down. Three children were among the dead, officials said. It was the largest attack of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people.

Donald Trump speaks to reporters at New Jersey before boarding Air Force One.Credit: AP

The barrage prompted Zelensky to call out “American silence”, saying the inaction was encouraging Putin in his war effort. But hours later, Trump warned that the Ukrainian leader’s choice of words was “doing his country no favours”.

“I’m not happy with what Putin’s doing,” Trump told reporters in New Jersey on Sunday (Monday AEST), before boarding his plane for a return to the White House from his Bedminster golf club.

“He’s killing a lot of people.

“I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him. But he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all. We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities.”

Asked if he was considering more sanctions on Russia, Trump said: “Absolutely.”

Upon returning to Washington, Trump posted more comments on social media, saying of Putin, “he has gone absolutely CRAZY”, while warning Zelensky about his language.

“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” Trump wrote of the Ukrainian president.

Earlier, Zelensky had posted on social media that “the silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin”. He added that “every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv last week. Credit: AP

The United States has taken a softer public line on Russia and Putin since Trump took office, and Trump declined to place further sanctions on Moscow last week when Russia failed to agree to an immediate pause in fighting as Kyiv had wanted.

Russia’s assault – the second in two days – came hours before Ukraine and Russia carried out a third and final prisoner swap, taking the total exchange to 1000 people each.

It came after Putin’s helicopter was forced to shoot down Ukrainian drones while the president was on board during a trip to the Kursk region last week, according to a report from London’s Telegraph overnight, which cited a Russian official on state television.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 12 people had been killed in the latest strikes and 60 more wounded. Earlier death tolls given separately by regional authorities and rescuers had put the number of dead at 13.

Viktor Kryvolapchuk with daughter Milana, 8, and his wife, Iryna, after spending 22 months in Russian captivity.Credit: Getty Images

“This was a combined, ruthless strike aimed at civilians. The enemy once again showed that its goal is fear and death,” he wrote on Telegram.

US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said the attack was “a clear violation” of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols and called for an immediate ceasefire.

Ceasefire efforts

Ukraine and its European allies have sought to push Moscow into signing a 30-day ceasefire as a first step to negotiating an end to the three-year war.

Their efforts suffered a blow earlier this week when Trump declined to place further sanctions on Moscow.

Women put flowers by the rubble of a destroyed house where three children were killed by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, on Sunday.Credit: AP

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in its latest assault, although it said it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles.

Damage extended to a string of regional centres, including Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.

In Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, said 11 people were injured in drone strikes. No deaths were reported in the capital, although four were killed in the region around the city, according to officials.

Russian servicemen make their way home after being released from captivity in Ukraine.Credit: Russian Defence Ministry/AP

In north-eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said drones had hit three city districts and injured three people. Blasts shattered windows in high-rise apartment blocks.

Drone strikes killed a 77-year-old man and injured five people in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor said. He published a picture of a residential apartment block with a large hole from an explosion and rubble scattered over the ground.

In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, many hundreds of kilometres away from the frontlines, four people were killed and five others wounded, according to the governor.

“Without pressure, nothing will change and Russia and its allies will only build up forces for such murders in Western countries,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.

“Moscow will fight as long as it has the ability to produce weapons.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry reported that its air defence units had intercepted or destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over a four-hour period. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 12 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted on their way to the capital.

Reuters

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