President Donald Trump called President Vladimir Putin of Russia “absolutely CRAZY!” in a Truth Social post Sunday evening after Russian forces launched a barrage of 367 drones and missiles impacting all Ukrainian regions, including the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia,” Trump wrote, “but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers.”
The weekend strikes killed at least 12 people, including three children in the northern region of Zhytomyr, according to Ukrainian officials.
Trump also criticized President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, saying he “is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does” and that everything “out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.” The president also referred to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine as “Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not ‘Trump’s.’”
“I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires,” he wrote,” that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.”
Earlier in the day, speaking with reporters at the airport in Morristown, New Jersey, Trump said of Putin: “I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. 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. We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities,” Trump told reporters.
US President Donald Trump speaks to journalists before boarding Air Force One from Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey on May 25, 2025 after spending the weekend in New Jersey.
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“What the hell happened to him?” the president continued.“Right? He’s killing a lot of people. I’m not happy about that.”
Russia’s latest strikes in Ukraine “appeared to be another setback to U.S.-led peace efforts, as Putin looks determined to capture more Ukrainian territory and inflict more damage,” the Associated Press reports. The multi-day barrage came after Kyiv had accepted an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in March proposed by the United States—one that Moscow effectively rejected, according to Ukrainian officials. The New York Times writes of Russia’s weekend attack: “The overnight strikes underscored how months of diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire have failed to yield a breakthrough as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has dragged his feet on agreeing to any temporary truce, adding conditions that he knows Ukraine will not accept.”
Trump’s recent comments about Putin “sending rockets into cities and killing people” come after Russia’s war in Ukraine surpassed its third year in February. As of that month, over 12,654 civilian men, women, and children have been killed, and over 29,392 injured, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission. The full amount of death and destruction is difficult to measure as Russia continues to ramp up its military offenses.
Following the president’s remarks about Putin, the Kremlin on Monday thanked the United States for its assistance, saying that Trump’s comments might be due to “emotional overload.”
When asked about the president’s words on Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We are really grateful to the Americans and to President Trump personally for their assistance in organizing and launching this negotiation process.”
“Of course,” Peskov continued, “at the same time, this is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overload of everyone absolutely and with emotional reactions.”
In this handout photo released via the official social media channels of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) meets with U.S. President Donald Trump (L) during Pope Francis’s funeral at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, on April 26, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican.
Handout/Getty Images
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Zelensky didn’t address Trump’s comments by name, instead urging the world to apply stronger pressure on Putin following the weekend strikes.
“Only a sense of total impunity can allow Russia to carry out such strikes and continue increasing their scale,” Zelensky wrote. “Like any criminal, Russia can only be constrained by force,” he continued. “Only through strength — the strength of the United States, of Europe, of all nations that value life — can these attacks be stopped and real peace achieved.”
“There is no real military logic to this,” he held, “but there is significant political meaning. In doing this, Putin shows just how much he despises the world — the world that spends more effort on ‘dialogue’ with him than on real pressure.”
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