After Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin “absolutely crazy” following Moscow’s biggest aircraft assault on Ukraine, the Kremlin claimed he was displaying symptoms of “emotional overload”.
The US president said on Truth Social on Sunday that “something has happened” to Putin, after Russia killed 13 in Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles. “He has gone absolutely crazy,” Trump said. “Needlessly killing a lot of people.”
Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the remarks are “connected to an emotional overload of everyone involved”.
Meanwhile, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, claimed that among allegations he would provide Kyiv Taurus missiles, Ukraine’s allies had eliminated all range restrictions on provided weapons.
Trump’s remarks coincided with Russia’s biggest combined aerial assault since its February 2022 full-scale invasion. Following Russia’s 366 drone and missile strikes on Saturday and Sunday, at least 13 people were killed and scores more injured in Ukraine.
Russia dispatched 355 drones against Ukraine between Sunday night and Monday morning, killing 10. According to the Ukrainian air force, this is the biggest attack yet carried out just using drones alone.
Peskov claimed that responses to Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s “social infrastructure” drove the most recent aircraft strikes.
According to the Russian defense ministry, over multiple Russian areas, air defense systems destroyed twenty Ukrainian drones.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said on Sunday there was no “military sense” to Russia’s aerial attacks – rather they were “an obvious political choice… by Putin, a choice by Russia… to continue the war and destroy lives.”
German chancellor Merz stated there were “no longer” range constraints on weapons sold to Ukraine in an apparently reaction to the Russian assaults over the weekend.
“This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by attacking military positions in Russia… with very few exceptions, it didn’t do that until recently. It can now do that,” Merz said.
Though this has not been confirmed, Reuters said Zelensky was set to travel to Berlin on Wednesday.
The BBC asked the Chancellery for opinions on whether Merz’s comment indicated an announcement on Taurus missile supply was forthcoming, something the former German government refrained from doing.
The UK said last year that Ukraine had the freedom to choose how to employ British-provided weaponry for military use. Though with restrictions, then-US president Joe Biden granted Ukraine authority in November to strike Russia using long-range missiles donated by the US.
About 500km is the range of the Taurus missile, significantly more than any other system Ukraine’s allies have provided. Russia declared the weapon’s supply would be “a dangerous move”.
Speaking late on Sunday in New Jersey, Trump remarked of Putin: “I’ve known him a long time, always got along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”
He also mentioned that he was thinking about raising US sanctions on Russia, something he has threatened to do many before.
Shortly thereafter, Trump made his “crazy” comment adding on Truth Social: “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!”
But the US president also had harsh remarks for Zelensky, declaring he was “doing his country no favours by talking the way he does”.
Trump wrote of Zelensky, “Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”
The US has warned it will either keep trying to mediate these peace talks, or “walk away” if progress does not follow, despite Kyiv’s European allies planning more penalties for Russia.
On Monday, Peskov declared Russia was “truly grateful” to the Americans and “personally to President Trump” for their assistance in planning and starting this negotiating process.
Trump and Putin spoke for two hours on last week to go over a US-proposed ceasefire agreement meant to stop the bloodshed.
The US president remarked he thought the call had gone “very well” and that Russia and Ukraine will “immediate start” talks aiming at a ceasefire and “an end to the war”.
Ukraine has openly agreed to a 30-day truce; Putin has only said Russia will cooperate with Ukraine to create a “memorandum” on a “possible future peace”; this action is labelled by Kyiv and its European allies as delaying strategies.
On May 16, 2022, Istanbul, Turkey hosted the first direct Ukrainian-Russian negotiations.
Apart from a significant prisoner of war transfer last week, there was not much if any advancement toward a stop in hostilities near.
Right now, Russia rules about twenty percent of Ukrainian land. This covers Crimea, the southern peninsula taken by Moscow in 2014.
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