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The United States and Russia are publicly clashing over the escalation of the war in Ukraine, after US President Donald Trump warned that Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was "playing with fire." But Moscow has already massed 50,000 troops near a Ukrainian region.
As world leaders clash in the distance over the prospects for peace, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II is rapidly heating up: swarms of drones are being launched from both sides, while Russia is advancing at key points along the front.
The American president, in a post on Truth Social, said that Putin was playing with fire and warned that "very bad" things would have happened to Russia if Trump had not been the US President.
"What Vladimir Putin doesn't understand is that if it weren't for me, a lot of really bad things would have already happened in Russia. He's playing with fire," Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.
Putin's foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told a state television reporter that Trump's comment shows he is not well informed about the realities of war.
"Trump is not sufficiently informed about what is really happening in the context of the Ukrainian-Russian confrontation," Ushakov said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was clear that the Trump administration was making "significant efforts towards a peaceful solution" and that Russia was "grateful for the mediation efforts of President Trump personally."
"Like the United States, Russia has its own national interests, which are above all for us, and they are above all for our president," Peskov said.
After speaking with Trump on May 19 for more than two hours, Putin said he had agreed to work with Ukraine on a memorandum that would outline the contours of a peace agreement, including the timing of a ceasefire.
Russia, Peskov said, was preparing for the next round of negotiations with Ukraine and to continue contacts with the United States.
With Trump and the Kremlin trading barbs, the war has intensified.
Russia said it had shot down 296 Ukrainian drones in 13 regions overnight, while Ukraine said Russia had launched 88 drones and five ballistic missiles.
After Russia expelled Ukrainian forces from the western Kursk region, Moscow's forces have crossed the border into the neighboring Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine and taken several villages there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has massed 50,000 troops near the northern Sumy region, but added that Kiev had taken steps to prevent Moscow from carrying out a large-scale offensive there. Putin has repeatedly said he wants a "buffer zone" along Russia's border with Ukraine.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said the US-led NATO military alliance is using the Ukrainian crisis to increase its presence across Eastern Europe and the Baltics, but that Russia is advancing along the entire front in Ukraine.
Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.
Russia currently controls just under a fifth of Ukraine. Although Russian advances have accelerated over the past year, the war is costing both Russia and Ukraine dearly in terms of casualties and military spending.
Top Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev, a former president, said Trump should be more concerned about World War III, a remark that Trump's envoy, Keith Kellogg, called reckless.
"Fearing World War III is a reckless comment... and inappropriate for a world power," Kellogg said on the X show. / Adapted from Reuters Pamphlet /
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