US President Donald Trump has slammed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, saying he has “gone absolutely CRAZY” over Russia’s weekend bombing of Ukraine.
"He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers," Trump said in a post 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," he added.
He tried to distance himself from the conflict, saying this is "Zelenslyy'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."
Earlier, he spoke to reporters and said Putin is needlessly killing a lot of people.
"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," Trump told reporters on Sunday at the airport in Morristown, New Jersey, as he prepared to return to Washington.
Trump spoke in reaction to a Russian barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight on Sunday, including the capital Kiev, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more.
Trump has been trying to get both sides to agree to a ceasefire in the three-year-old war in Ukraine, and he spoke for more than two hours with Putin last week.
"Always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all," Trump said.
Last week, during a phone call with European leaders, Trump said Putin is not ready to end the war in Ukraine as he believes he is winning, The Wall Street Journal reported.
More sanctions?
He raised the possibility of imposing more sanctions on Russia in response to the ongoing attacks.
Responding to a question on the tarmac in Morristown, Trump said he was "absolutely" considering increasing US sanctions on Russia in response to the latest violence.
That statement was at odds with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's testimony at Congress earlier this week when he said Trump believed that "right now, if you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking."
Putin has made no commitment to pause his three-year invasion of Ukraine, announcing only a vague proposal to work on a "memorandum" outlining Moscow's demands for peace.
