Putin 'needlessly killing a lot of people,' Trump says, as Russia continues drone onslaught in Ukraine
Ukraine spokesperson says early Monday barrage Russia's largest air assault since 2022 invasion
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 355 drones and nine cruise missiles against Ukraine overnight, a huge salvo that the air force's spokesperson told Reuters made it Russia's largest drone attack of the war to date.
The Ukrainian air force said the third consecutive night of Russian aerial attacks hit targets in five locations, but did not elaborate. A 14-year-old boy was reported injured in the Black Sea region of Odesa. Residential buildings and industrial facilities were damaged in western Ukraine, officials said.
In light of the sustained attacks, U.S. President Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin had "gone absolutely CRAZY" in comments on Truth Social.
"He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I'm not just talking about soldiers," said Trump. "Missiles and drones are being shot into cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever.
"I've always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that's proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!" added Trump.
The Kremlin on Monday reacted to Trump's comments on Putin by urging calm.
"We are really grateful to the Americans and to President Trump personally for their assistance in organizing and launching this negotiation process," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. "Of course, 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."
French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped that Trump's ire toward Putin would now result in new sanctions that could dissuade the Russian leader from acting further.
Residential building in Odesa destroyed
Trump also criticized Volodomyr 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, I don't like it, and it better stop."
Ukraine, the United States and other Western countries have called for a 30-day halt to fighting without preconditions to allow for peace talks.
Work on Russia's proposal for a possible peace deal for the Ukraine war is ongoing and a draft has not yet been submitted, the Kremlin said on Monday.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine that did not include Putin and Zelenskyy met last week in Turkey, but the only known concrete step toward peace emerged on the weekend, when hundreds of prisoners of war were released from captivity by both countries.
Russia says it targeted military installations
In terms of Monday's damage, the Russian Defence Ministry said its strike hit targets at Ukraine's Starokostiantyniv airbase in Khmelnytskyi region. The Kremlin said the attacks were directed at military targets and that the strikes were a response to significant Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian targets.
Russian drone strikes caused fires and destruction in private households in the southern Odesa region, Ukraine's Emergency Service said.
At the sites hit in Odesa district, a residential building covering an area of 100 square metres was destroyed, the emergency services said, adding that the fire had been extinguished.
Regional governor Oleh Kiper said a 14-year-old boy was injured in the attack.
In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, many hundreds of kilometres away from the front line, the governor said that a combined Russian attack damaged private households and enterprises, but there were no civilian casualties, according to preliminary information.
In northeastern Ukraine, the regional governor said that Kharkiv and its outskirts were under Russian attack and explosions could be heard in some of districts.
The governor of the central Cherkasy region said that 25 Russian drones had been neutralized within the region overnight but added that there were no injured or reports of damage so far.
The air raid alert lasted six hours in Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration, said.
Tkachenko reported damage in one city district but said that there were no casualties.
On the ground, Russian forces have captured the settlements of Volodymyrivka and Bilovody in eastern Ukraine, the TASS state news agency reported on Monday, citing Russia's Defence Ministry.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield report.
Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukraine territory.