The Kremlin on Monday pushed back at President Donald Trump’s comments that dubbed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, "crazy," mulling whether the American leader was suffering from "emotional overload."
While thanking Trump for “helping start” the negotiation process between Moscow and Kyiv, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said these talks went “hand in hand with an emotional overload of absolutely everyone and with emotional reactions.”
At the same time, he added, Putin was “doing what must be done for Russia’s security.”
Peskov’s comments followed Trump saying Putin had gone “absolutely crazy” this weekend by launching Russia's largest air raid on Ukraine since its invasion in 2022. He also warned that the Russian leader’s attempt to capture all of its neighbor would lead to its “downfall.”
Three hundred Russian drones and missiles pummeled Ukrainian cities and villages, including the capital, Kyiv, killing at least 12 people, overnight Saturday.
Trump, who has been trying to orchestrate a peace deal in a war he promised to end within a day of being back in office, also criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for “doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does.”
But with reports Monday of renewed intensive Russian attacks in Kharkiv came questions over whether Trump will abandon his strategy of courting Putin.
The American president’s apparent rapport with Putin dates back at least a decade. In 2015, the Russian leader heaped praise on then-presidential candidate Trump, saying he was a “colorful, talented person.” Trump responded by saying those comments were a “great honor” coming from the “highly respected” Russian leader.
A year later, Trump openly urged Putin to influence the American presidential election, seen in the eyes of many observers as an overt invitation for Russian intelligence services to hack into the account of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
And just last week, Putin’s adviser Yuri Ushakov described a friendly, if fruitless, phone conversation between the two leaders where “neither of them wanted to end the conversation.”
But while Trump and Putin speak of each other with cordiality, relations are testier between the two countries than the rhetoric would indicate.
Russia has appeared to bear down in the war in Ukraine instead of easing up in hopes of achieving a peace deal or even a ceasefire.
Russia has tested Ukrainian defenses in the cities of Sumy and Zaporizhzhia in an attempt to get Ukraine to agree to the Kremlin's demands.
Last week, Putin said in a video conference with Russian officials that his military had begun creating a “security buffer zone” along its border with Ukraine.
The latest assault on Kyiv suggests “Russia is now set to increase the tempo and scale of attacks” over the summer to build pressure on the negotiations, wrote Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.
Russia’s “summer offensive will likely have a soft launch with a steady increase in the number and scale of assaults across a broadening area around the main axis,” Watling wrote. “Indeed, there are indications this process has already started.”
Putin has also shown a willingness to go to war elsewhere during his 25 years in power, including in eastern Ukraine, Chechnya and Georgia.
Since Trump’s first administration, Washington has traditionally taken a harder line toward Russia than the president’s statements would suggest.
Moves are now afoot to impose more sanctions on Russia.
On Sunday, Trump suggested that he would “absolutely” consider new sanctions against Moscow’s renewed military offensive, while Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement last week that they would introduce a “hard-hitting” bill against Russia.
That includes imposing a 500% tariff on buyers of Russian exports if Moscow “refuses to engage in good faith negotiations for a lasting peace with Ukraine or initiates another effort, including military invasion, that undermines the sovereignty of Ukraine after peace is negotiated,” according to Graham and Blumenthal.
Washington is also encouraging its NATO allies to donate more missiles and air defense systems from their stockpiles to help Ukraine counter Russian ballistic missile attacks.
“Russia cannot sustain operations indefinitely, but for now Moscow thinks its leverage over Ukraine will build over time,” Watling said, adding that its military was set to intensify its operations “since Trump has strongly implied that he will withdraw from negotiations.”
