President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “playing with fire,” as Moscow continues battering Ukraine in the face of Trump’s attempts to broker a peace deal to end the war.
“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 wrote in a Truth Social post late Tuesday morning.
The comments come as part of an apparent change in the Trump administration’s approach to the Kremlin.
The Russian attack coincided with the largest prisoner swap since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which saw the exchange of 1,000 prisoners on the same day as Russia’s massive weekend attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was criticized by President Donald Trump on Tuesday for “playing with fire,” as Moscow continues to attack Ukraine despite Trump’s efforts to mediate a peace agreement to end the conflict.
Vladimir Putin is unaware that if it weren’t for me, Russia would have already experienced a number of serious, I mean seriously, negative events. “He’s playing with fire!” Trump wrote late Tuesday morning in a Truth Social post.
The remarks are part of a seemingly different strategy that the Trump administration is using to deal with the Kremlin.
Trump appears to have changed his mind on Sunday, calling Russian leader Vladimir Putin “absolutely CRAZY.” This is in contrast to the majority of his second term, when he gave Putin a more lenient stance and falsely blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for starting the protracted conflict. “”.
Trump stated Sunday that if Putin persisted in his war on Ukraine, it would “lead to the downfall of Russia.” He added, “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him.”. “”.
After Russia launched one of its most devastating attacks in months against Ukraine over the weekend, killing at least 12 people in a combined drone and missile attack that hit more than 30 Ukrainian cities, Trump changed his strategy.
The Russian attack was part of the biggest prisoner exchange since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when 1,000 prisoners were exchanged on the same day as Russia’s massive weekend attack.
Trump had made the significant diplomatic breakthrough—the result of the first U.S. S. In an effort to fulfill his campaign pledge to put an immediate end to the catastrophic conflict, Trump has mediated direct negotiations between the warring nations.
“Congratulations on this negotiation to both parties. Even before the first phase of the swap had started, the president declared in a preemptive post on Truth Social that the negotiations he had pushed had been successful. “This could lead to something big???”.
The negotiations failed to secure the unconditional ceasefire agreement that Ukraine had demanded in the run-up to the talks, despite the success of the 1,000-prisoner swap. On the first night of the negotiations, Russia launched a series of missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.
