Moscow has launched its third consecutive night of massive drone strikes against Ukraine, killing at least six people, as Donald Trump broke his silence to suggest the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, had “gone crazy”.
Overnight on Monday, Russia fired a record 355 Shahed drones as well as nine cruise missiles, in an escalating drone campaign targeting Ukraine’s cities and communities, with Ukraine’s air force spokesperson, Yuriy Ignat, confirming it was the largest drone attack since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
While the US president railed against Putin, saying he had “gone absolutely CRAZY”, he also criticised the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for calling out US inaction against Russia.
“Something has happened to [Putin]. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said of the Russian president 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!”
Trump also posted that the Ukrainian leader “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.”
While Trump had suggested earlier, speaking to reporters, that he may be considering new sanctions, there was no indication on Monday morning of any meaningful US action against Moscow.
The sheer scale of Putin’s defiance of Trump following last Monday’s call between the two leaders has imploded the US president’s ill-defined strategy for ending the war in Ukraine, which Trump had promised to do within 24 hours upon taking office.
With Trump rejecting European calls for toughening sanctions against Russia, and pressure for an immediate 30 ceasefire, Putin has called Washington’s bluff to press ahead with its war on Ukraine.
There was no immediate response from the Kremlin or from Zelenskyy’s office on Trump’s remarks.
Russia began escalating aerial assault on Ukraine’s cities on Friday launching a series of nightly strikes involving hundreds of drones that have sent Ukrainians to air raid shelters, basements and metro stations.
The attacks overnight into Monday morning came after what had been the biggest aerial assault of the war, when Russia pummelled Ukrainian cities and other targets with at least 367 drones and missiles overnight on Sunday, killing at least 12 people, including three children, in the northern region of Zhytomyr.
Russia has massively scaled up its domestic production of drones such as the Shahed, meaning it is no longer reliant upon Iran for its supply as it was when the weapons were first deployed even as it has developed sophisticated new tactics for their use, making them an increasingly potent weapon.
Analysts are split, however, whether the heavy bombing of Ukrainian cities is a tactic in its own right, to demoralise the Ukrainian home front, or is part of a wider push on the battlefield going into the summer amid Ukrainian and western intelligence assessments that Russia intends to continue fighting through this year.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy condemned “the silence of America” after Russia carried out its largest air raid in three years of war, with a second straight night of massive drone and ballistic missile strikes.
“Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia,” Ukraine’s president said.
During his campaign for the presidency, Trump claimed repeatedly that, if elected, he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, even before being inaugurated.
However, the intensity and frequency of this weekend’s strikes contrasted sharply with Trump’s claim that Vladimir Putin was interested in peace.
The attacks meant Kyiv Day – celebrated on the last Sunday in May – began as exhausted people sheltered in bunkers, metro stations and basements.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram: “Without pressure, nothing will change and Russia and its allies will only build up forces for such murders in western countries. Moscow will fight as long as it has the ability to produce weapons.”
