The United States and Russia entered a public spat on Tuesday over the escalating war in Ukraine, after US President Donald Trump warned that President Vladimir Putin was "playing with fire" and Moscow massed 50,000 troops near the border with a Ukrainian region, Reuters reported, BTA wrote in a summary of the war of words that has erupted in recent hours.
As world leaders argue over prospects for peace, Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II is rapidly heating up: both sides are sending waves of drones at each other as Russia advances on key points on the front.
Trump, in a post on "Truth Social", said that Putin is playing with fire and warned that "REALLY BAD" things would have already happened to Russia if it weren't for him.
"What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, very bad things would have already happened in Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. "He's playing with fire," Trump wrote in a post on the Trut Social platform yesterday.
Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told a journalist on state television that Trump's comment suggested he was not well informed about the realities of the war.
"Trump is not sufficiently informed about what is really happening in the context of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict," Ushakov noted.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was clear that the Trump administration was making "significant efforts for a peaceful settlement" and that Russia is "grateful for the mediation efforts of President Trump personally".
"Just like the United States, Russia has its own national interests, which are above all for us and above all for our president," Peskov said.
After a conversation with Trump on May 19 that lasted more than two hours, Putin said he agreed to work with Ukraine on a memorandum that would outline the contours of a peace agreement, including deadlines for a ceasefire. Russia, Peskov said, is preparing for the next round of talks with Ukraine and for continued contacts with the United States.
After Trump and the Kremlin exchanged sharp words, the war intensified.
Russia said it shot down 296 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions overnight, while Ukraine said Russia fired 88 drones and five ballistic missiles.
After Russia drove Ukrainian forces out of the western Kursk region, Moscow's forces crossed the border into neighboring Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine and seized several villages there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had massed 50,000 troops near the northern Sumy region, but added that Kiev had taken measures to prevent Moscow from launching a large-scale offensive there.
Putin has repeatedly said that wants a “buffer zone” along Russia's border with Ukraine.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that the US-led NATO is using the Ukrainian crisis to strengthen its presence in Eastern Europe and the Baltic region, but Russia is advancing along the entire front in Ukraine.
Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to enter 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's territory.
Although the Russian offensive has intensified over the past year, the war has been costly for both Russia and Ukraine in terms of casualties and military spending.
Russia's Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, who is also a former Russian president, said Trump should be more concerned about a possible World War III, a move Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, called reckless. "Fighting fears of World War III is an unfortunate, reckless comment... and unbecoming of a world power," Kellogg wrote on the "Ex" platform.