After Russia launched a fresh offensive against Ukraine following the prisoner swap by hitting the country with a record number of drones and killing 13 people, United States President Donald Trump on Monday said he is “not happy” with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
“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,” said Trump at Morristown airport.
“I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he added.
Trump’s remarks come after Russia launched its biggest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine so far and sent as many as 367 drones and missiles overnight on Sunday, hitting several cities across the country, including the capital Kyiv, reported Reuters.
Trump said that Russia’s move has “surprised” him. “We are in the middle of talking, and he is tuning rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don’t like it at all. I am surprised, very surprised…We will see what we are going to do,” he said.
The US President added that he was “absolutely” considering enhancing sanctions on Russia after its latest strike against Ukraine, reported AFP.
Russia attacks Ukraine
Russia’s biggest air offensive against Ukraine came as the two countries completed their biggest prisoner swap of the three-year-long war. Around 1,000 captured soldiers and prisoners were exchanged by each side during the swap over the weekend.
Among the 13 people killed in the Russian strikes on Ukraine are two children, aged eight and 12, and a 17-year-old, according to officials, said the AFP report.
After the attack, Ukrainian President Zelensky said that the “brutality” by Russia cannot be stopped without “truly strong pressure”.
“The war can be stopped, but only through the necessary force of pressure on Russia. Putin must be forced to think not about launching missiles, but about ending the war,” he said in a post on X.
With agency inputs.
