WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV, May 26 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” by unleashing the largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine and said he was weighing new sanctions on Moscow, though he also scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Trump posted the remark on Truth Social as sleeping Ukrainians woke to a third consecutive night of massive Russian aerial attacks, listening for hours to drones buzzing near their homes and eruptions of Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire.
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The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 355 drones and nine cruise missiles against Ukraine overnight, a huge salvo that the air force’s spokesman told Reuters made it Russia’s largest drone attack of the war to date.
“Something has happened to him (Putin). He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said of the Russian president 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!”
Trump also criticised Zelenskiy, posting that the Ukrainian leader “is doing his Country no favours by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”
The Kremlin, asked about Trump’s specific remarks about Putin being “crazy”, thanked the U.S. people and Trump in person for their assistance in launching peace negotiations but suggested Trump and others might be emotionally overloaded.
“This is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overload of everyone absolutely and with emotional reactions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Swarms of drones are being launched by both sides while fierce fighting is underway along key parts of the front.
The Ukrainian air force said the overnight Russian attack hit targets in five locations, but did not elaborate, implying military damage.
The western region of Khmelnytskyi, which is home to a military airbase, was targeted by seven cruise missiles and scores of drones, and residential buildings and industrial facilities sustained damage, officials said. A 14-year-old boy was reported injured in the Black Sea region of Odesa.
The Russian defence ministry said its strike hit targets at Ukraine’s Starokostiantyniv airbase in Khmelnytskyi region. The Kremlin said the attacks were directed at military targets and that the strikes were a response to significant Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian targets.
Zelenskiy, in a post on X, did not directly address Trump’s criticism, but said the world appeared to be spending more effort on dialogue with Putin than with actually exerting real pressure on the Kremlin chief.
Russia, Zelenskiy said, can only be constrained by force, and called again for additional sanctions on Russia.
‘I’M NOT HAPPY’
Speaking to reporters at the airport in Morristown, New Jersey, Trump said of Putin: “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. What the hell happened to him? Right? He’s killing a lot of people. I’m not happy about that.”
He raised the possibility of imposing more sanctions on Russia in response to the ongoing attacks.
In the biggest aerial assault of the war, Russia pummelled Ukrainian cities and other targets with at least 367 drones and missiles overnight into Sunday, killing at least 12 people, including three children in the northern region of Zhytomyr, Ukrainian officials said.
The Russian attack was the largest of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people.
Trump has been pressuring Russia and Ukraine to end the more than three-year war, but the two sides remain far apart – and while major powers talk, the war is intensifying and Russian forces are advancing in eastern Ukraine.
European leaders have been disappointed by their inability so far to win over the U.S. leader to their cause in the war started by Russia, and to convince him to cross the threshold of imposing major new sanctions.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped that Trump’s ire towards Putin would now result in new sanctions that could dissuade the Russian leader from acting further.
The Kremlin says it is conducting what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine to protect Russia from NATO encroachment on its borders. Ukraine says Russia launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Dmitry Antonov in Moscow, Tom Balmforth and Yulia Dysa in Kyiv and Jeff Mason and Steve Holland in Morristown, New Jersey; Editing by Toby Chopra, Gareth Jones and Aidan Lewis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA’s work was recognized with Deutsche Welle’s “Freedom of Speech Award.” Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA’s “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure” award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists’ “Breaking News” award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.
As Moscow bureau chief, Guy runs coverage of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Before Moscow, Guy ran Brexit coverage as London bureau chief (2012-2022). On the night of Brexit, his team delivered one of Reuters historic wins – reporting news of Brexit first to the world and the financial markets. Guy graduated from the London School of Economics and started his career as an intern at Bloomberg. He has spent over 14 years covering the former Soviet Union. He speaks fluent Russian.
