Trump says Putin 'playing with fire' in new jab at Russian leader

RNZ News

27-05-2025

By
Kylie Atwood, Kristen Holmes, Kevin Liptak
and
Matthew Chance
, CNN
Donald Trump says he doesn't know what's wrong with Valadimir Putin as more people die in Russia's war with Ukraine.
Photo:
AFP / Brendan Smialowski
When President Donald Trump spoke last week by telephone with Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader committed to drafting and sending what he described as a "memorandum of peace" in the coming days laying out Russian requirements for a ceasefire with Ukraine, according to a US official and White House official familiar with the matter.
But more than a week after that phone call, the US has yet to receive the document from Russia, the sources said. Now, Trump is considering moving ahead with new sanctions on Moscow in the coming days as he vents his fury at the state of the conflict, according to people familiar with the matter.
Options were drawn up in the past several weeks to apply new measures punishing Moscow, but so far Trump has not approved them. The president said on Sunday (US time)
he would "absolutely" consider new sanctions in the aftermath of a sustained missile and drone bombardment
that left many dead.
"He's killing a lot of people," Trump said of Putin on Sunday. "I don't know what's wrong with him. What the hell happened to him?"
And in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, the president wrote: "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. He's playing with fire!"
Trump could still decide not to apply the new sanctions, the people said, in keeping with past examples of him backing away from threats to target Russia over its actions in Ukraine. Trump has said privately he is concerned new sanctions could push Russia away from peace talks.
During
their call last Monday
, Trump told Putin that Russia and Ukraine should be communicating directly to negotiate a peace accord, and that Europe and the United States would help when needed, a White House official said.
After that call, Trump said on social media that the conditions for a ceasefire "will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be". The call came just days after the first direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey. When those talks ended, the expectation was that a follow-up Russian memo would be shared with Ukraine.
But the plan for Russia to send its memorandum not just to Ukraine but also to the US indicates that Trump concluded the call without completely washing his hands of potential future involvement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
Photo:
Pool / AFP / Jacquelyn Martin
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov the day before the Trump-Putin call and said they discussed the topic.
Lavrov told Rubio at the time that Russian officials would be "preparing a document outlining their requirements for a ceasefire that would then lead to broader negotiations", Rubio told CBS'
Face the Nation
last week. He added that if that came forward, along with Ukrainian proposals, "we can work off of that."
"Hopefully that will be forthcoming soon," Rubio added.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Moscow was working on the document.
"Russia continues the development of the draft memorandum regarding the future peace treaty with the definition of a number of positions, such as: principles of settlement, timeframes of possible conclusion of peace agreement (and) potential ceasefire for a certain time in case of reaching corresponding agreements," Zakharova said.
"As soon as the memorandum is prepared, it will be handed over to Kyiv," her statement continued. "We expect that the Ukrainian side is conducting the same work and will send us its developments simultaneously with the receipt of the Russian document."
While the US waits on Russia - with mounting frustration - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday accused Putin of "simply playing games with diplomacy and diplomats".
Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have begun lobbying Trump to significantly ratchet up US sanctions after the weekend attacks.
"All of us, by our public statements as well as private contacts, are pressing very, very hard," Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told CNN on Monday.
Blumenthal is a key figure behind a cross-party Senate bill, also sponsored by Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham, which aims to impose "crippling" new measures on Moscow. It would include "secondary sanctions," like massive 500 percent tariffs on countries buying Russian energy. More than 80 senators have signed on to the bipartisan bill so far.
According to Blumenthal, the cross-party bill - which could impact US adversaries like China as well as friendly Asian and European nations - was drawn up in "very extensive" consultation with US allies who may be affected by new sanctions on Russian energy imports. Germany, France and Britain are now "all for it, with 100 percent support", he told CNN.
After speaking with Putin last week, Trump told European leaders on a telephone call that he would not join them, for now, in applying new measures on Moscow, even though he had previously signalled a willingness to take a tougher approach to Putin, a European official said.
Trump "believes, that right now if you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking, and there is value in us being able to talk to them and to drive them to get to the table", Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, a day after Trump and Putin spoke over the phone. "Like we will see, look they have to do this, no one is claiming that this is a guarantee."
After Trump's most recent comments, French President Emmanuel Macron voiced hope the US leader would change course.
"President Trump realizes that when President Putin said on the phone he was ready for peace, or told his envoys he was ready for peace, he lied," Macron said Monday. "We have seen once again in recent hours Donald Trump express his anger. A form of impatience. I simply hope now that this translates into action."
Trump has previously raised the notion of new sanctions on Russia's banking sector and secondary sanctions on purchasers of Russian energy products. Both options have been drawn up, but it wasn't clear what specific steps Trump was considering in the wake of Russia's weekend bombardment in Ukraine.
-AFP