Seething Trump slams Putin for 'killing people' and claims 'something happened to this guy'
President
Donald Trump
slammed Russian President
Vladimir Putin
in a dramatic U-turn amid more sickening Russian attacks on Ukraine.
Before boarding a plane to Joint Base Andrews in
Washington DC
Sunday, the Republican leader was asked by reporters about his relationship with Putin, which has
soured as of late
.
Trump said he is considering more sanctions on Russia amid the war with Ukraine, but would not reveal the intimate details of his retaliation.
"I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people," said a furious Trump on the runway at Morristown Airport.
"I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. I've always gotten along with him."
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"But he's sending rockets into city and killing people. Something happened to this guy. I don't like it at all.
"We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets in Kyiv and other cities. I'm very surprised."
(Image: AP)
Over the last couple of days, Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other regions came under a massive Russian drone-and-missile attack that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens.
Ukrainian officials described it as the largest aerial assault since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
When asked by reporters what he's going to do about Putin, Trump added: "We'll see what we're going to do. What, am I going to tell you? You're the fake news. You're totally fake."
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
This comes after a phone call between the two leaders centered on potential peace talks to resolve the Russia-initiated conflict in Ukraine. Trump reportedly made a promise to Putin,
who is said to be 'confident' of annexing four Ukrainian regions.
According to Yuri Ushakov, a Russian presidential aide, Trump pledged to be available for Putin's calls "anytime." Ushakov shared recorded comments with the press,
revealing that the two leaders discussed the Ukrainian war and their nations' relationship
, though no specific timeline for a ceasefire was established.
Trump was said to be "losing patience" with Putin over his delaying tactics regarding a Ukrainian ceasefire. The US president is pushing to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, which began with Moscow's unlawful invasion in February 2022.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb recently shared his thoughts on the issue at a security conference in Estonia, saying: "If we were to pull it together, we could say that Zelensky is patient and President Trump is starting to be impatient, but in the right direction, that is, towards Russia."
Putin skipped peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month, instead sending diplomats to engage in brief discussions with Ukrainian officials. Ukraine's President Zelensky attended the event.
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