US president voices frustration over the continuing war in Ukraine, says Vladimir Putin is ‘killing a lot of people’.
United States President Donald Trump says he is not happy with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, over the continuation of the war in Ukraine and suggests he is considering additional sanctions against Moscow.
“We get a lot of b******t thrown at us by Putin,” Trump said during a meeting with his cabinet at the White House on Tuesday. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
Putin is “killing a lot of people” and a lot of them are his soldiers and Ukraine’s forces, Trump added.
When asked about his interest in a bill proposed by the Senate for further sanctions on Russia, Trump said: “I’m looking at it very strongly.”
But he refused to preview his plans further when asked whether he will act on his frustration with Putin.
“I wouldn’t be telling you. Don’t we want to have a little surprise?” Trump told reporters. He then pivoted to discussing the lengthy planning for last month’s US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Trump made the comments as French President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the British Parliament that Europe will “never abandon Ukraine”.
Macron stressed that the United Kingdom and France will work with a “coalition of the willing” to support Ukraine.
“We will fight till the very last minute in order to get the ceasefire, in order to start the negotiations to build this robust and sustainable peace, because this is our security and our principles together which are at stake in Ukraine,” Macron said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said his administration will send more weapons to Ukraine, adding that the new shipments would be primarily comprised of “defensive weapons”.
According to US media reports, Washington had paused the transfer of certain missiles and munitions to Ukraine due to its dwindling weapons stockpiles. The Pentagon said it was conducting a “capability review” of US weapons.
As a candidate, Trump promised to swiftly end the war in Ukraine. But so far, his diplomatic efforts – including several phone calls with Putin – have failed to stem the violence.
Ukrainian and Russian officials met for direct talks in Turkiye in May and agreed to a prisoner swap, but the two sides have not been able to reach a temporary truce, let alone a lasting ceasefire.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow is waiting for Ukraine to propose possible dates for further negotiations. “As soon as dates are agreed – and we hope that it will be done – we will make an announcement,” he said.
Russia has been stepping up its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks and has been slowly grinding its way forward along several parts of the Ukrainian front line in recent months.
On Monday, it announced that it had captured the Ukrainian village of Dachne in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
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