The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has criticized his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, describing him as “absolutely crazy” after Moscow launched its greatest air attack in the war in Ukraine, killing at least 13 people.
Trump's comments, issued on his Truth social platform on Sunday night, marked a rare reprimand of Putin.
“I have always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin de Russia, but something has happened to him. He has become absolutely crazy!” The president of the United States wrote.
“I have always said that all Ukraine wants, not just a piece of it, and maybe that is demonstrating to be correct, but it will lead to the fall of Russia!” Added.
The comments occurred when the Ukraine Air Force said Russia had launched a record number of drones against Ukraine during the night on Sunday. He said that the Russian forces deployed 298 drones and 69 missiles, but that he could lower 266 drones and 45 missiles.
The Russian attack was the greatest of war in terms of fired weapons, although other strikes have killed more people.
Ukraine emergency services described an atmosphere of “terror” throughout the country on Sunday, and regional officials said that those killed included victims of eight, 12 and 17 years in the northwest region of Zhytomyr.
More than 60 others were injured.
“Without a really strong pressure on Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on social networks.
“The silence of America, the silence of others worldwide only encourages Putin,” he said, adding: “The sanctions will certainly help.”
Sanctions
Trump has expressed more and more irritation with Putin and the inability to solve the three -year war, that the US leader had promised that he would do a few days after returning to the White House.
For a long time he boasted his friendly relationship with Putin and repeatedly emphasized that Russia is more arranged than Ukraine to reach a peace agreement.
But earlier on Sunday, Trump made it clear that he is losing patience with the Russian president.
“I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing many people. And I don't know what the hell happened to Putin,” Trump told journalists when he left the north of New Jersey, where he had spent most of the weekend.
“I have known it for a long time, I always took it, but it is sending rockets to the cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all.”
When asked if he was considering more sanctions on Russia, Trump said: “Absolutely.”
Trump also criticized Zelenskyy, a more frequent objective of his anger, in his publication on social networks, accusing him of “not doing his country does not favor when he speaks as he does.”
“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don't like it, and it's better to stop,” he said about Zelenskyy.
Europe condemns Russia
A peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine is still difficult to achieve.
Last week, Trump and Putin made a two -hour phone call, after which the American leader said that Moscow and Kyiv “would immediately begin the negotiations towards a high fire.”
Putin, however, did not promise to stop his three -year invasion of Ukraine, announcing only a vague proposal to work in a “memorandum” that describes the demands of the peace of Moscow.
That conversation occurred after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Turkiye for the first face to face conversations since 2022. But on Thursday, Kremlin said no direct conversations were scheduled.
The Russian attack against Ukraine also caused criticism from Europe.
The main diplomat of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, asked “the strongest international pressure on Russia to stop this war.” In a publication about X, he said that the attacks “again show Russia committed to greater suffering and the annihilation of Ukraine. Devastators see children among innocent victims harmed and killed.”
The German Foreign Affairs Minister Johann Wadephul also denounced the attacks, saying: “Putin does not want peace, wants to continue with the war and we should not allow him to do this,” he said.
“For this reason, we will approve other sanctions at European level.”
The massive attacks against Ukraine occurred when Russia said it had exchanged another 303 Ukrainian prisoners of war for the same number of Russian soldiers held by kyiv, the last phase of an exchange agreed during the conversations in Estanbul on May 16.
That marked its greatest exchange of prisoners since Moscow launched its large -scale invasion in February 2022, with 1,000 captured soldiers and civil prisoners in total sent by each side.
