President Donald Trump has ramped up his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin as the country unleashes intensifying strikes against Ukraine.
The president’s rhetoric has taken a harsh turn against Putin after Russia launched some of its largest-ever strikes against Ukraine, hitting large cities, including Kyiv, with hundreds of drones and missiles. He continued escalating his criticism on Tuesday in a post on Truth Social, issuing an ominous warning.
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!” Trump said.
Trump’s lament comes the same day as a positive development in U.S.-Russia relations, as the two countries reportedly agreed to a prisoner exchange.
“President Trump is a man who wants results,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Turkey, according to NBC News.
The U.S. president’s patience with Russia has grown thin over recent days, with Trump expressing frustration over the massive missile bombardment against Kyiv and other major cities.
On Sunday, Trump said Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY!” in a post on Truth Social. “He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever.”
He is reportedly considering imposing more sanctions against Russia.
When asked to give an update on the war over the weekend, Trump expressed surprise over the recent bombardments of Ukrainian cities, saying, “I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin.”
“I’m not happy with what Putin is doing. He’s killing a lot of people, and 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,” Trump said.
Trump reopened talks with Russia upon assuming office, with his administration breaking with its predecessor by proclaiming neutrality and pushing for an end to the war altogether. While the push has changed the framing of the war, with all sides now openly signaling their wish for its end, irreconcilable differences between Kyiv and Moscow have prevented a breakthrough in negotiations.
Russia has maintained momentum since winning the Battle of Avdiivka in February of last year, wearing down Ukrainian defences and making a slow but steady advance across the front. Its expulsion of Ukrainian forces from Kursk Oblast earlier this year served as another major boost for Russian ambitions.
Though Moscow continues its peace talks with the U.S., most Russian analysts agree that it has little reason to end the conflict, as it’s only poised to achieve more of its goals as the war continues.
One of the biggest battlefield developments over the past few months is unrelated to Trump, however. As best illustrated over the past few days, Russia has managed to almost fully degrade Ukraine’s air defenses, either through damaging or destroying missile defense batteries or depleting their ammunition.
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Ukraine is completely out of ammunition for its two vital missile defense SAMP/T batteries, the Franco-Italian version of the Patriot, according to sources speaking with Le Monde. It’s almost or completely out of ammunition for its short-range anti-aircraft Crotale system, and its stocks of Patriot missiles have grown wearily thin. State Secretary Marco Rubio has indicated that the U.S. has no more Patriot missiles to give.
The growing weakness of Ukrainian air defenses was illustrated when they failed to intercept any of the nine ballistic missiles fired by Russia over the weekend.