'Very disappointed': Trump continues to criticize Putin's war tactics during negotiations
After calling Russian President Vladimir Putin "crazy" in recent days and warning that he's "playing with fire," President Donald Trump continued to express disappointment in the Russian leader's escalation of attacks on Ukraine while peace negotiations are ongoing.
"I'm very disappointed at what happened a couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation. I'm very disappointed by that," Trump said May 28 during an Oval Office event.
Russian forces launched a barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities over the weekend, including the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more, officials said.
Trump responded to the attack in a May 25 social media post declaring Putin has "gone absolutely crazy."
The Kremlin called Trump emotional.
"This is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overload of everyone absolutely and with emotional reactions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the Trump remarks about Putin.
Russia has continued its assault on Ukraine, prompting Trump to issue a warning May 27 on social media that Putin is "playing with fire."
"What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD," Trump wrote.
The president declined to say what the consequences could be for Russia if the attacks continue.
"I'm not going to tell you exactly, but the words speak pretty loud," he said.
Trump has tried to get both sides to agree to a ceasefire in the three-year-old war in Ukraine, and spoke for more than two hours with Putin earlier this month.
Asked May 28 if he still believes Putin wants to end the war, Trump said "I can't tell you" but suggested the next few weeks will be revealing.
“They seem to want to do something but until the document is signed I can’t tell you, nobody can," Trump said.
There have been growing calls for the U.S. to impose stronger sanctions on Russia.
Asked what stopped him from imposing new sanctions, Trump said: "Only the fact that if I think I'm close to getting a deal I don't want to screw it up by doing that."
"You have to know when to use that," Trump added.
Contributing: Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, Francesca Chambers, Reuters