In a rare direct attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump called him “absolutely crazy”. Trump has hit out at his Russian counterpart, accusing him of “needlessly” killing people in Ukraine. In a Truth Social post published on Sunday (25th May), Trump expressed his frustration over Putin launching missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities. President Trump’s change in tone for Putin comes at a time when the American leader has continuously been boasting of working towards ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! 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,” Trump said.
The US President further insinuated that President Putin wants to annex entire Ukraine, however, it would lead to Russia’s “downfall”.
“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!” Trump said.
President Trump also slammed Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy for “talking the way he does”, adding that it serves no purpose other than creating problems.
“Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” the US President said.
Trump being Trump, proceeded to boast about how the Russia-Ukraine war would never have erupted if he had been the US President. He also claimed that the prolonged conflict is a Putin’s, Zelenskyy’s, and Biden’s war.
“This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not “Trump’s,” I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred,” he added.
President Trump’s assertion that Russia’s fresh offensive in Ukraine and Zelenskyy’s rhetoric are counterproductive to peace efforts, comes after Russia launched a massive overnight attack involving more than 300 drones and 69 missiles against Ukrainian cities, including capital Kyiv. Reports say that around 13 people were killed in the Russian strikes. Russia is also reported to have taken control of the village of Romanivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Earlier on Sunday, Russian air defences intercepted 110 Ukrainian drones, including 13 over the Moscow and Tver regions.
Meanwhile, the US Special Envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, deemed the latest Russian attack as “a clear violation” of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols and called for an immediate ceasefire.
Russia’s aerial strikes against Ukraine came days after the two warring nations completed biggest prisoner swap since the beginning of the conflict. Recently, over 1000 soldiers and prisoners of war were exchanged by both sides.
Donald Trump’s statement against President Putin comes after Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said that America’s silence has emboldened Putin. Zelenskyy also advocated for building strong pressure on the Russian leadership, otherwise, “Russian brutality cannot be stopped.”
“This cannot be ignored. America’s silence, and the silence of others in the world, only encourages Putin,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump has continuously been expressing frustration over President Putin’s alleged sudden change in stance towards potential ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine. Earlier, while interacting with reporters at the Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey, Trump said that he failed to understand “what the hell happened to Putin”, adding that he “doesn’t like it at all”.
“I don’t like what Putin is doing. Not even a little bit,” Trump said.
After all of Trump’s boastful talks of ending Russia-Ukraine conflict, peace remains elusive
Donald Trump’s frustration over Putin, however, is not confined to mere rhetoric, rather, the US President is contemplating imposing secondary sanctions against Moscow. It is interesting to mention that just few days ago, Ukraine had said that it would ask the European Union to impose stricter sanctions against Russia, including seizing Russian assets and bringing in sanctions for some buyers of Russian oil.
This came in view of Trump’s growing pro-Russia stance recently as the US President had decided not to impose fresh sanctions against Moscow after having a telephonic conversation with President Putin. However, Trump’s more recent remarks directly accusing President Putin of taking measures counterproductive to peace efforts indicate that the US is somewhat fickle in its approach.
Earlier this month, Ukraine and the United States signed the minerals deal under which the US will gain access to the war-torn nation’s rare earth deposits, including oil and gas.
After assuming office, Trump has significantly reduced aid to Ukraine, thus compelling the war-torn country to ink a deal to secure long-term US investment.
Interestingly, the Trump administration has been pushing for a swift end to the war, possibly at the cost of some of Ukraine’s long-term strategic goals, most importantly, NATO membership. Not to forget, Ukraine’s desperate attempts at joining NATO were one of the major reasons behind the escalation of tensions with Russia. This remains a bone of contention with Russia emphasising that it cannot allow Ukraine to join NATO since this poses a direct threat to Russia’s sovereignty.
The US-Ukraine deal and Putin-Trump telephonic conversations, however, are not yielding much positive results towards securing lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine. Before the latest threat of imposing secondary sanctions, Trump had hinted at imposing sanctions against Moscow after Russia’s missile attack on Ukraine and questioned whether Putin wants to stop the war.
Interestingly, during his election campaign last year, Donald Trump had claimed that if voted to power, he would end the Russia-Ukraine conflict within 24 hours, however, it’s been nearly five months already and Trump’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war embarrassingly faltered.
Donald Trump changing his seemingly pro-Putin stance, which Ukraine earlier called “appeasement”, is not surprising as the American President has already backtracked from his statement in which he committed to bringing the Ukraine-Russia war, ongoing for the last three years, to an end.
Both Russia and Ukraine have been accusing each other of delaying peace talks and resolution of disputes. This is when both countries talk about being interested in ending the conflict while continuously launching drone and missile strikes against each other. On 16th May, Russia and Ukraine started direct peace talks in Istanbul and agreed on exchange of 1000 prisoners each. The two nations had also agreed to start drafting a document outlining the conditions for a potential ceasefire.
Recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that second round of talks with Ukraine will take place soon. While prisoners swap, agreed upon in the first round of talks, has been completed, ceasefire remains a distant dream. While Russia remains adamant about making Ukraine relinquish its NATO dream, and halting of Western military aid to Ukraine, Kyiv deems this unacceptable. These core differences have rendered all the months of diplomatic efforts futile.
Interestingly, Donald Trump has been trying hard to position himself as a global peacemaker. It was seen during the recent India-Pakistan standoff, wherein India inflicted humiliating damages against Pakistani terror camps and military establishments, how Trump repeatedly claimed to have ‘settled’ Indo-Pak conflict through trade. Although a laughable claim, even if believed for argument’s sake, the question arises as to why has his “trade” ties offers for both Russia and Ukraine have failed to ‘settle’ the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv?
Interestingly, Trump has gone from being reluctant to impose fresh sanctions against Russia, being friendly with President Putin and rebuking President Zelenskyy, to calling the Russian leader “crazy” and contemplating imposition of secondary sanctions against Russia. So far, the prisoner swap has been the only positive outcome of Russia-Ukraine peace talks, the United States has secured a lucrative minerals deal with Ukraine, while people on the Russian and Ukrainian sides continue to die.
