Donald Trump lashes Vladimir Putin after U-turn on weapons for Ukraine

Donald Trump has teased more Russian sanctions “at my option” after reversing a decision to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine.

A fired up Donald Trump has let fly at Russia’s Vladimir Putin after vowing to bolster Ukraine’s defences.

“I’m not happy with Putin, I can tell you that much right now, because he’s killing a lot of people,” Mr Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday (early Wednesday AEST).

“We get a lot of bulls**t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

The comments came the day after Mr Trump said the United States will send additional weapons to Ukraine, triggering Russian criticism after Moscow claimed new gains in its grinding war against its neighbour.

“We’re going to have to send more weapons – defensive weapons primarily,” Mr Trump told journalists at the White House.

US President Donald Trump speaks as Attorney General Pam Bondi (L) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C) look on during a cabinet meeting in Washington. Picture: AFP

“They’re getting hit very, very hard,” he said of Ukraine, while adding that he was “not happy” with Mr Putin.

Mr Trump also said he was “very strongly” considering supporting a punishing sanctions bill to bring Russia to heel.

“It’s totally at my option. They pass it totally at my option, and to terminate totally at my option. And I’m looking at it very strongly,” the president said.

The Kremlin hit back, warning that sending arms to Ukraine only serves to prolong the conflict.

“It is obvious of course that these actions probably do not align with attempts to promote a peaceful resolution,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying in a briefing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has upset Donald Trump. Picture: Picture: AP

Mr Trump’s announcement to send weapons to Ukraine followed Washington saying last week that it was halting some weapons shipments to Kyiv, leaving Ukrainian officials caught off guard and scrambling for clarity.

A pause poses a potentially serious challenge for Kyiv, which is contending with some of Russia’s largest missile and drone attacks of the more than three-year war.

Mr Trump has reportedly promised to immediately send 10 Patriot interceptors – antimissile systems – to Ukraine, according to US news website Axios.

FOLLOW UPDATES BELOW:

RUSSIAN MINISTER’S ‘SUICIDE’ AFTER PUTIN FIRING

Russia’s former transport minister Roman Starovoyt killed himself, Moscow announced on Monday, hours after the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had fired him.

Starovoyt, 53, had been Russia’s transport minister for a year and was previously the governor of the border Kursk region, where Russia had battled a Ukrainian incursion.

His apparent suicide came as Russia cracks down on some military and civilian officials in the midst of the Ukraine offensive.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, with Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit in January. Picture: Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Authorities said Starovoyt’s body was found in the Moscow suburb of Odintsovo.

“Today, the body of former Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt was found in his private car with a gunshot wound in the Odintsovo district,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

“The main version (considered) is suicide,” it added.

Russian state media said Starovoyt shot himself. It was not clear exactly when he did so.

AFP saw police and investigators at a car park, with state media saying Starovoyt committed suicide near his car in a busy area near some apartment blocks.

Mr Starovoit was found in his car with a gunshot wound. Picture: (Dmitry Astakhov, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP

Hours earlier, the Kremlin published a decree signed by President Putin to relieve Starovoyt of his duties.

It only said: “Roman Starovoyt was relieved of the post of Minister of Transport.”

Starovoyt’s firing came after another weekend of travel chaos at Russian airports following Ukrainian drone attacks.

Russian state media speculated the firing was linked to corruption in the Kursk region and a possible criminal case on the embezzlement of funds meant for fortifications in the border region.

Russian police guards at a self-murder scene at a parking slot in the town of Odintsovo outside Moscow. Picture: AFP

In April this year, authorities had arrested Alexei Smirnov, who had replaced Starovoyt as Kursk governor last year, on suspicion of embezzling over $12 million of funds earmarked for border defences with Ukraine.

Several news outlets reported that Smirnov had testified against Starovoyt.

Russia has arrested a series of officials for corruption, accusing them of stealing money meant for defence, during the Ukraine offensive.

The Kremlin has not yet commented on Starovoyt’s death.

RUSSIA MAKES KEY ADVANCES IN UKRAINE

Moscow launched a fresh large-scale drone and missile barrage before the announcement that it had penetrated central Ukraine, including on Ukraine’s army recruitment centres, as part of an escalating series of attacks.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces captured the village of Dachne in the Dnipropetrovsk region, an important industrial mining territory that has also come under mounting Russian air attacks.

Rescue workers put out a fire of a building destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Picture: AP

Kyiv has so far denied any Russian foothold in Dnipropetrovsk.

Moscow first said last month its forces had crossed the border, more than three years since launching its invasion and pushing through the neighbouring Donetsk region.

Earlier Monday, Ukraine’s army said its forces “repelled” attacks in Dnipropetrovsk, including “in the vicinity” of Dachne.

Rescue workers put out a fire of a building destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Picture: AP

Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea – that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory.

An AFP reporter in the eastern city of Kharkiv saw civilians with their belongings being evacuated from a residential building damaged during Russia’s overnight attacks, and others sheltering with pets in a basement.

A paramedic gives first aid to a resident who was injured in a Russian air strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Picture: AP

At least four people were killed and dozens wounded across Ukraine, mostly in the Kharkiv region bordering Russia and in a late-morning attack on the industrial city of Zaphorizhzhia.

“Air defence remains the top priority for protecting lives,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media after the attacks, as fears mount over US military aid.

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was “strongly counting on our partners to fully deliver on what we have agreed”.

A woman reacts as she leaves her home that was destroyed by a Russian air strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Picture: AP

101 DRONES

The air force said Moscow had launched 101 drones across Ukraine and four missiles. Seventy-five of the drones were downed, it added.

Attacks on Monday targeted two recruitment centres in separate cities wounding four people, the Ukrainian army said, in what appears to be a new trend following similar strikes over the weekend and last week.

“These strikes are part of a comprehensive enemy operation aimed at disrupting mobilisation in Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications, a government-funded body, wrote on social media.

Local residents outside a damaged residential building following a Russian drone attack in Vyshgorod district, Kyiv region. Picture: Ukrainian State Emergency Service / AFP

It added that Russia had attacked recruitment centres last week in the cities of Kremenchuk, Kryvyi Rig, and Poltava.

In Russia, the defence ministry said that it had shot down 91 Ukrainian drones overnight, including eight in the Moscow region, with the majority of the rest in regions bordering Ukraine.

On Sunday, local time, Russia said it had captured another two settlements in east Ukraine, one in the Donetsk region and one in the Kharkiv region.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on Russia’s claims.

– AFP