As the Kremlin escalated its attacks on Ukraine, Trump was asked in the Oval Office on Wednesday if he thought Putin wanted to end the war.
Since Sunday, Trump has written multiple posts on social media saying that Putin has gone “absolutely crazy” and is “playing with fire” after Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine.
This includes a recent two-hour phone call between Trump and Putin, after which the US president said the discussions went “very well”.
After the latest attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “something has happened” to Putin, which the Kremlin said were comments made “connected to an emotional overload”.
Putin aide Yury Ushakov told Russian state TV channel Russia-1 that Trump must be unaware of “the increasingly frequent massive terrorist attacks Ukraine is carrying out against peaceful Russian cities.”
It seems that US President Donald Trump has given Vladimir Putin a two-week ultimatum, threatening a different response if the Russian leader continues to coerce him.
On Wednesday, Trump was questioned in the Oval Office about his belief that Putin wanted to end the war as the Kremlin intensified its attacks on Ukraine.
“I can’t tell you that, but I’ll let you know in about two weeks,” Trump said to reporters, the most recent in a series of harsh public statements he has made attacking Putin.
Trump has claimed on social media that Putin has gone “absolutely crazy” and is “playing with fire” since Russia stepped up its attacks on Ukraine on Sunday.
According to reports, the Russian bombardments rank among the most devastating and extensive since the war’s inception. The conflict is currently in its fourth year.
At least 13 people were killed and dozens more, including children, were injured over the weekend by Russian strikes in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
Furthermore, there was no indication that the attacks were abating by Wednesday.
In response to questions about whether he believes Putin is sincere about ending the war and the escalation of violence, Trump stated: “I’ll let you know in about two weeks.”.
In two weeks. Whether Putin is tapping us along or not will be revealed to us.
And we’ll react a little differently if he is. “,”.
The remarks reveal Trump’s mounting annoyance as the White House’s repeated attempts to broker a settlement between Russia and Ukraine seem more and more pointless.
Among these is a recent two-hour phone conversation between Trump and Putin, during which the US president declared that the talks went “very well.”.
Putin declared that he was prepared to collaborate with Ukraine on a “memorandum on a possible future peace agreement” as he ended the call.
Ukraine’s air force said that call came a week before Russia sent dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones toward the country’s capital.
Additionally, Russia has not yet produced a memorandum.
Thus far, Moscow has not seemed to be alarmed enough by Trump’s threats to comply with his demands. Trump has not fulfilled these kinds of threats in the past.
As Washington attempted to guide the nations to Trump’s demand for a truce, Trump has only taken action against Ukraine since taking office.
This included a March eight-day halt to US military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
However, the US government has not made any overt demands for Russia to make any major concessions.
Pointing out that all of the sanctions from the Biden administration are still in effect against Russia, the White House denies claims that it is caving in to Moscow or not enforcing its will.
However, its mediation strategy seems to have increased rather than decreased the Kremlin’s power thus far.
Trump claimed on Truth Social that “something has happened” to Putin following the most recent attacks, a claim the Kremlin claimed was “connected to an emotional overload.”.
The days that followed saw more Russian attacks on Ukraine. Trump’s criticism then intensified. He said Putin was “playing with fire” on Tuesday and that, had Trump not been involved, “lots of bad things” would have happened to Russia.
“We have concluded that Trump is not sufficiently informed about what is really happening,” a Kremlin aide wrote in response to the most recent Trump Truth Social post. “,”.
Trump must not be aware of “the increasingly frequent massive terrorist attacks Ukraine is carrying out against peaceful Russian cities,” Yury Ushakov, a Putin aide, told Russian state TV channel Russia-1. “,”.
Friedrich Merz, Germany’s new chancellor, assured Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Wednesday that Berlin will assist Kyiv in developing long-range missiles to protect itself against Russian assault.
Any decision to lift range restrictions on Ukraine’s missile arsenal would be a risky shift in strategy that would undermine attempts to reach a political agreement, the Kremlin has warned.
Trump has repeatedly lowered his demands in response to Russia’s resistance, changing the focus from his initial demand for an immediate 30-day ceasefire—to which only Ukraine agrees—to more recently calling for a summit with Putin in order to achieve what he claims would be a breakthrough.
Since the United States reestablished contact with Russia in February, Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov have increased their demands from previous stances.
These have included demands that the US recognize Crimea as a legitimate part of Russia and that Ukraine give up areas of its own nation that aren’t even under Russian occupation.
A former US ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, refers to this as a “poison pill” that Russia introduced, setting up circumstances that Kyiv could never accept in order to place the blame on Ukraine in Trump’s eyes.
In addition to leaving much of Ukraine’s east and south in ruins, the conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Moscow possesses approximately one-fifth of the nation’s land, including the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
After negotiations in Istanbul, Zelensky accused Moscow of stalling the peace process and claimed they had not yet delivered the promised memorandum of peace terms. The document, according to Peskov, was in its “final stages.”. “..”.
