Russia said Tuesday its large-scale aerial bombardments of Ukraine were a retaliatory response to mounting Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian civilians, accusing Kyiv of attempting to derail ongoing peace efforts.
Moscow fired hundreds of drones at Ukraine between late Friday and early Monday, killing more than a dozen people and saturating the country’s air defenses.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been seeking to broker an end to Moscow’s three-year invasion, said Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” and threatened Russia with sanctions over the attacks.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war have accelerated in recent weeks, with Russian and Ukrainian officials holding direct talks for the first time in three years earlier this month but the Kremlin has shown no signs of scaling back its maximalist demands.
“Kyiv, with the support of some European countries, has taken a series of provocative steps to thwart negotiations initiated by Russia,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Russian air defenses destroyed 2,331 Ukrainian drones between May 20 and 27, more than half of which were intercepted in areas outside the battlefield, the ministry said.
“Civilians, including women and children, were injured,” it said, describing its recent strikes on Ukraine as a direct “response.”
Moscow said it had only hit “military targets” in Ukraine, but Kyiv said at least 13 civilians were killed in Russian attacks Sunday.
Kyiv accused Russia of trying to evade responsibility for the killings.
“We need to end this eternal waiting – Russia needs more sanctions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram Tuesday.
Russia’s invasion, launched in February 2022, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and ravaged large parts of the east and south of the country.
Everyone is ’emotional’
For three of the past four nights, Russia pummelled Ukraine with hundreds of drones in what Kyiv described as a weekend of “terror.”
Moscow fired fewer drones at Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, but strikes still damaged buildings in the northern Sumy region and hurt multiple people in the regions of Kherson and Kharkiv, officials said.
In a rare rebuke of Russia’s Putin, Trump said on social media late Sunday Washington time: “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!”
“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!”
The Kremlin played down Trump’s criticism on Monday, saying Putin was taking measures “necessary to ensure Russia’s security” and that everyone was feeling “emotional” at the moment.
Ukraine and Russia sent back 1,000 people each over the weekend in their biggest ever prisoner exchange, while Moscow said it was preparing a document outlining its peace terms.
But that document was still not ready Tuesday, despite Russia announcing it would present it to Ukraine once the prisoner swap was complete.
Moscow has consistently rejected a call by Kyiv and its Western allies for an unconditional and full cease-fire, and has called for Kyiv to drop its NATO ambitions and cede territory it already controls.
“As soon as the memorandum is ready, it will be sent to Kyiv. We hope that the Ukrainian side is doing the same,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Tuesday.
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