Trump says Putin’s ‘gone crazy’ as Russia launches largest strike yet

US President Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely crazy” by unleashing the largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine and said he was weighing new sanctions on Moscow, though he also scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump posted the remark on Truth Social as sleeping Ukrainians woke to a third consecutive night of massive Russian aerial attacks, listening for hours to drones buzzing near their homes and eruptions of Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 355 drones and nine cruise missiles overnight.

“I’ve always said that he wants all of Ukraine, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” Trump said. He also criticised Zelenskyy, posting that the Ukrainian leader “is doing his country no favours by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, it better stop.”

The Kremlin, asked about Trump’s specific remarks about Putin, suggested he and others might be emotionally overloaded. “This is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overload of everyone absolutely and with emotional reactions”.

Germany’s new chancellor said Monday that his country and other major allies are no longer imposing any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion.

“That means Ukraine can also defend itself by, for example, attacking military positions in Russia,” Merz said at a forum.

Commenting on Merz’s statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a decision to lift range restrictions would be “quite dangerous” and “run contrary to our efforts to reach a political settlement.”

Germany has been the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States.

Merz’s government has been tightlipped on whether it will supply Taurus long-range cruise missiles, something his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, refused to do.

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