President Donald Trump has publicly rebuked Vladimir Putin following Russia’s largest aerial assault of the war, saying the Russian leader is “needlessly killing a lot of people” and has “gone absolutely CRAZY.”
The remarks came after a night of devastating attacks on Ukraine that saw 367 drones and missiles launched across the country, including 298 Iranian-designed Shahed drones and 69 missiles of various types, according to Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat. The scale of the bombardment makes it the single largest Russian air attack in the conflict’s three-year duration.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “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.”
In an earlier comment to reporters, Trump echoed the sentiment: “I’m not happy with what Putin is doing. He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin.”
At least 12 people were killed, including children, with dozens more injured in the overnight barrage. Entire neighbourhoods in Kyiv and other cities were left smouldering in the wake of the sustained Russian bombardment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the attacks by criticising what he called “America’s silence” in the face of escalating Russian aggression. “The world may go on vacation, but the war continues… America’s silence, and the silence of others in the world, only encourages Putin,” he said on Sunday.
Trump also turned his ire toward Zelensky in his social media post, saying the Ukrainian leader’s rhetoric was unhelpful: “Likewise, President Zelenskyy 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 unprecedented assault by Russia comes amid renewed international pressure on the Kremlin to accept a ceasefire. However, Putin has shown no sign of scaling back operations, with this weekend’s assault seen by some analysts as a show of defiance in response to recent ceasefire proposals and growing Western criticism.
Is this not a case of ‘the pot calling the pan black’ and with consideration for the victims.
Has Putin changed?
I don’t see it. He’s just emboldened due to western inaction as we continue to cut our militaries, despite political grandstanding on however many % they plan this week, years into the future.
Note, I don’t support any NATO intervention into Ukraine, just arming them to the teeth as we’ve tried to do, while building up ourselves.
Agree- I think sadly the time for intervention or any troops on the ground ended the minute BoJO and demented Jo declared to the world they would not intervene in Ukraine only emboldening Putin to invade in the first place.
I think arming Ukraine to keep them fighting for their democracy and freedom is fair enough, whilst we ourselves (meaning the UK and European NATO allies + Canada) re-equip and rearm for what many think is an inevitable conflict with Russia.
SDSR must be reporting soon- before the end of June and likely before the NATO summer summit on 24-26th June- HMG will want to send Starmer off to much fanfare to that summit. We have seen some tentative green shoots of recovery and improvement- the MLRS order being one of them.
Lets see- Im hoping SDSR will resolve a lot of the craziness within the provision of the armed forces. It wont take gigantic sums of money, just a small but carefully targetted intervention.
ALl C2 to C3 and all equipped with Trophy sets (one example)
New battlefield rifles for army
Order RCH155
Either upgrade warrior or order a new IFV- likely an Aries derivative +/- a turreted boxer
Another batch of type 31s and/or additional type 26 frigates
6 more posiedon MPAs
Wedgetail order back upto 5 with intent to get to 7 within the next 3-5 years
New batch of 36 F35Bs (final batch) and then switch all new aircraft budget to dragging GCAP/Tempest programme forward.
If money allows a new batch of typhoon would be a very sensible idea as an interim solution if GCAP/ Tempest isnt able to be delivered into frontline service by 2030
Army manpower needs to go up by 5K-10K, RN by 3-5K and RAF by 3-5K- army could easily achieve this by increasing Gurkha recruit numbers if British nationals not willing to serve.
MRSS- order to be placed with intention to roll immediately into production the very second FSS is coming off production lines
type 32 frigate- ignore- this can be just a revised batch of type 31s with increased emphasis on sub sea warfare- we dont need a full fat ASW frigate as we have type 26 for that, just something able to monitor and protect our critical national infrastructure- or alternatively get more RFA Proteus an Sterling Castle type vessels to operate as drone motherships.
All of that isnt going to destroy the public finances, besides which who actually cares as the public finances are in a terrible state anyway and yet we still have money to pay for migrants in their tens of thousands to live in temporary accommodation- £2.43 billion in the last year- which is a national disgrace, that and welfare reform is how the government afford to repair the armed forces and prepare for a future conflict with the Russian-Chinese axis.
I like your suggestions and retaining CH2 as a reserve if the Government does not sanction more CH3 conversions. I’m reasonably sanguine that at least two more Type 26 will be ordered and possibly a few stretched versions of the Type 31 with additional weapon stations.
Maurice, not CH – they are not Chieftains. The rough estimate is that there will be about 70 CR2s left in Ashchurch, unconverted to CR3. They will probably be in a shocking condition, with many parts long since plundered by cannibalisation for spares. I could not easily see a way to bring heavily cannibalised tanks back to running condition as most of the spares will be unobtainable.
Graham, I’m sure CH is Challenger? Forgive my layman knowledge, but surely the CH3 needs hulls only as most of the running gear and engines have to be upgraded to CH3 standard? The notion that the UK cannot offer its troops a serious war reserve of MBTs must weigh on the minds of strategic planners, as high attrition rates would result in no replacements. I know I keep banging on about the small CH3 fleet, but if the UK is faced with a crisis where it handles the majority of the task, not having a sensible replacement stock is a risk.
I’m not sure, I think the defence review findings will now come after the NATO summit due to what is likely to a seismic shift in the bottom line of what you are expected to spend on defence as a nato member..
From what I’m reading Spain is now the only nation not agreeing to 3.5% direct spend on defence and 1.5% on defence adjuncts ( supporting defence industry and donations etc) by 2032.. so essentially that announcement would completely change the dynamics of our nations defence..
So I don’t think the government will announce a 2.5% based defence review when it’s then got to plan for 3.5% by 2032 and a 1.5% invested in defence industry and sell that to the public.
I suspect at present there are two work streams one review on the 2.5% track and a new 5% track.. the one we get will definitely depend on what new spending floor is announced at the NATO summit..
The only way it will be announced beforehand is if it’s essentially a shoe in for the 3.5%+1.5% and in that case we may see a defence review before the NATO summit that preempts this..
The spending review in a couple of weeks may tell us more as the reports are essentially the government are burning down departments spending apart from defence and the NHS..
The BBC reported that
“There is a joke, of sorts, doing the rounds in Whitehall, that soon government will be “the NHS and the army with the rest just bolted on”.
That’s quite the shopping list. Just out of interest, how do you pay for that lot when we have a sovereign debt crisis, an aging population crisis, an impending revolution of cognitive labour with AI and can’t even take care of disabled kids, the dying elderly and our economy is completely stagnant and we are already taxed up to the eyeballs? I’m asking for a friend.
Mr Bell, of course there will be no fine detail in the much-awaited SDR. That will follow in a Defence Command Paper months down the line.
He is emboldened as Trump has allowed Russia carte blanche to do as it wishes so when the US walk away from the peace process, he’ll just continue bombing. However, Putin may be laying it on thick to weaken Ukraine further before going for serious peace talks. Trump is playing the middle game with a bias towards Putin for whatever reason.
I think he has changed post COVID. Trump previous contacts with him were all before COVID. Putin was always bad but never mad before COVID and now he is a failed whack job.
I think Dear Mr Trump that Putin has been psychotically crazy for quite some time. There is a good reason he is a criminal wanted by the ICC in the Hague.
He’s not anyone’s chum, he’s about as reliable as a rattle snake and about as mentally stable as Freddy Kruger.
Sadly, he is not crazy; in fact, his actions have buckled the World’s diplomacy. Putin realises that Trump could render the US a pale reflection of what it was before his tenure, with a risk of de federation as the imbalanced governance takes effect. If just a few states decide to break away, the net result might begin a slide in defence revenue. I’m not suggesting de federation will happen, but the cracks are beginning to show, particularly some disparity between red and blue voting states’ aid programmes.
Rather a pathetic outburst from Trump. Putin is relentlessly gaining ground by attrition and he knows it. Sanctions don’t cut it. The US and Europe need to help arm Ukraine with whatever they need to build a defensive line they can hold while inflicting unacceptable losses on Russian forces.
Agree essentially the taps should be open in regards to supplies.. essentially the west should see this as an opportunity to empty their war stocks and renew everything
Reports in the evening papers that Germany and maybe US and other Eutope allies have taken the range restrictions off missiles. About time. We must allow Ukraine to strike the launch sites of the incoming missiles and drones.
Can the orc economy sustain another 150 yrs of war? That is the time based on average land taken that it will take for them to take Ukraine!
I think Putin has calculated that he can take the 4 or 5 Oblasts that he wants as a buffer between a Kyiv led Ukraine and Russia. Ideally he would like Odesa, which would emasculate Ukraine. He has put the Russian economy on a war footing and the Russian people are loyal enough to solidify behind his patriotic call to defend Orthodox Mother Russia against the decadent LGBT trans West. Worth remembering that Russian losses in WW2 numbered about 26million souls. They don’t give up easily.
It’s very difficult to separate the russian numbers of deaths with the Soviet Unions they love to shout about how mother Russia bore the burden of ww2 and how strong the russian people were but let’s look at them numbers 26 million dead of which 8 million were from Ukraine and god knows how many other from the other satellite states the truth is the various other states bore the burden more than Russia did plus in ww2 ucould get away with wiping out a village in Siberia by drafting all the men and starving the rest as there was no internet nobody knew about it I would say in 2025 things are different and Russia isn’t as stable as Putin would like to believe
During the Cold War Soviet casualties were quoted as 20-25mil. Since the fall of the USSR historians have been able to check their records and it appears Stalin was blaming WW2 for a lot of his own murders. The figure has been reduced to 15-20mil.
The claim of 26-27mil you hear a lot of nowadays is Putin’s revisionism to get the Russian equivalent of our Reform voters to kill and die for him.
As Tim has pointed out above Russians were only 60% of the USSR’s population. The civilian casualties were also horrendous and were mainly in the Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine, the areas that saw most of the fighting.
Of real losses of say 18mil, the half that were civilian were mainly in our newest NATO members and Ukraine, the half that were military were about 5mil Russian, the rest other.
Real Russian casualties were about 8mil total.
Trump is quick with the verbal, but will he order any action to stop Putin? Probably not.
Putin is feeling emboldened right now.
I think the tied is turning, the first Trump White House did a lot for Ukraine, giving them Javelin and bringing in sanctions. If the pro kremlin stooges are pushed out of the White house trump will go with the flow of the advisers.
I think your correct, I suspect Trump was promised a quick peace he could sell to his domestic audience as a win…if he doesn’t get that we shall see what happens.
Probably less to do with a change of advisors though, more to do with Trumps ego. Ironic if Putin and Trumps egos are what leads to Ukraine prevailing.
There is no scenario where Ukraine can prevail. It’s just a case of how many more die and how much more land they lose.
Fuck off back to Moscow.
Nice of the Donald to finally notice what Russia has been doing since its horrific invasion. Also ironically what Zelenski was trying to patiently convey at that awful Whitehouse barrating ambush stunt where trump & Vance parroted Russian properganda.
But words are cheap & Trump routinely goes one way, then the other & back again, so on past form I’ll wait to see if it’s any more than empty hot air or a serious realisation that the main problem is a murderous neo-Imperial Russia at Putins direction.
The longer Russia is appeased, the closer we get to WW3. A resounding, forceful response as soon as Russia invaded would’ve been far more effective than slowly mounting incremental & often months late assistance for UKR to defend herself.