“Ukrainians gave Putin a reason for him to enter and bomb them in the hell,” said US President Donald Trump on Friday, commenting on Ukrainian strikes against Russian bases. The president also said that he has not yet decided to impose new sanctions on Russia.
Trump referred to the Ukrainian operation “Spider” aboard Air Force One during a flight to his property in New Jersey. When asked if this changed his perception of the situation about “cards” that Ukraine has at his disposal, Trump critically commented on these actions.
“Well, they gave Putin a reason to enter and bomb them on the hell of last night,” he said. He added that he did not like the Ukrainian attack. “When I saw this, I said +Well, we start, now there will be a blow (Russia) +” – reported the president.
Trump was also asked about his attitude towards the draft Congress Act regarding sharp sanctions against Russia. He replied that he would “see” and that he was willing to use sanctions if he decides that Russia would not be willing to conclude a peace agreement.
“They (Congress) have a bill that will depend on me. It will be my option,” he noted. He added that he has nothing against the act, but he has not yet decided to impose sanctions
“This is a very strong project,” he noted, not answering directly to the question of whether it is true – as “Wall Street Journal” wrote – that he pressed the project's records.
During the Friday flight, Trump also briefly referred to the statement of the highest leader of Iran Ajatollah Ali Chamenei, who complained that Iran would not give up the possibility of enriching uranium. Trump threatened that if Tehran does not get out of the Uranus enrichment program, he would have to force him “in a different way” than by negotiations.
“I really don't want to do it in a different way, but we won't have a choice. There will be no enrichment” – he noted.
Zełnski to Trump: Putin is a murderer who came to kill children
The President of Ukraine in an interview with American television ABC News told about a “boundless pain” of a man who lost his wife and three children in a Russian attack. He noted that this husband and father did not mention the data and numbers, but he said that he was waking up every morning, looking for his loved ones in the apartment and had the impression that it is a bad dream.
Trump “cannot completely feel and understand this pain” – emphasized Zelanski. “And this is not about President Trump, but about all who are not here in a country who are thousands of kilometers from here” – he added in an interview, whose full version will be published on Sunday.
Zelanski announced that 631 Ukrainian children were killed as a result of the war.
Trump said on Thursday that during his Wednesday conversation with Vladimir Putin he compared the situation between Russia and Ukraine to two children, “beating like crazy”.
“They hate each other and fight, and you are trying to separate them. They do not want to be separated and sometimes it is better to let them fight for a while and then separate them. And yesterday I gave this analogy to Putin,” Trump reported. He also said that he asked the Russian leader not to retaliate for the Ukrainian attack on Russian airlines.
Zelanski about the operation “Spider”: Russian drivers did not know that they were carrying our drones
Russian truck drivers did not know that they would transport drones, which would be used to attack military airports in Russia – said the President of Ukraine Wołodymyr Zelnski on Friday at ABC News. He added that during surgery with the crypeting “Spider”, the exclusion of Ukrainian unmanneders was used.
Zelanski said that the drivers were not aware that the houses they transported housed drones, which were then used to attack Russian military airports.
Drivers “did not know anything (…), they simply did their work” – said Zelanski in an interview with American television ABC News, whose fragments were published on Friday.
He noted that the services used only Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles during surgery. During the action, no equipment from allied arsenals was used. Zelanski added that he only wanted to use the armament of Ukrainian production.
According to the Ukrainian side, 41 aircraft of Russian strategic aviation were to be damaged as a result of the damaged operations last Sunday. On Wednesday, Reuters wrote, in turn, citing the estimates of American officials, that the Ukrainian drone attack on Russian bombers resulted in the destruction of 10 of them and a hit of about 20.
As part of the operation of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) prepared for a year and a half, it transported drones to Russia, and then mobile wooden houses. Already in the territory of this country, unmanned aerial vehicles were hidden under the roofs of houses, transported on trucks. At the right time, the roofs were remotely opened, and the drones set off towards the designated goals – Russian bombers.
On Wednesday, Moscow Times wrote that after the attack of Ukrainian drones, intensive truck checks began on Russian roads. According to the website, the inspections take place primarily in Siberia, while trucks with the Chelyabinian license plates are controlled throughout Russia.
According to investigators, drones, whose Ukrainian forces used to attack the aerial bases in Russia, were stored in a warehouse in Czelabińsk, where they could be delivered from China across the border with Kazakhstan. They were transported to the regions of military airports in trucks with the Chelyabinian registration plates. The portal noticed that a 37-year-old resident of the Chelyabinian region, who registered the transport company last year, was placed on the list of sought after to organize sabotage.
“WSJ”: Trump is pressing to alleviate the law on sanctions against Russia
President Donald Trump presses the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to soften the wording of his bill on new sanctions against Russia, “says Wall Street Journal. According to the journal, the president is afraid that sanctions will harm the reset of relations with Russia.
As the newspaper writes, Trump in the last days of “quietly” encouraged Graham – the author of the bill on “crushing” sanctions against Russia – that the law prepared would give him the opportunity to withdraw from sanctions or did not impose on him the obligation to impose new restrictions, but only gave him such an opportunity.
As a representative of the White House, quoted by “WSJ” said, the US Constitution entrusts the president's rights to conduct diplomacy, so “each packet of sanctions must provide the president with full flexibility so that he can continue the implementation of his foreign policy.”
But according to the journal, the main reason for Trump's pressure are fears that sanctions “can harm his purpose to resurrect the relationship between the US and Russia.”
When asked about the project on Thursday during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said that he had to get acquainted with him, but clearly pointed out that this was a “severe” act and that the congress would be guided by his will in this matter. At the same time, he announced that he would impose additional sanctions on Russia only when he decided that the war cannot be stopped.
The Act by Graham and the Democrat Senator Richard Blimenthal obliges the administration to impose sanctions on entities in the energy and banking sector of Russia, as well as duties of 500 percent. For goods from countries consciously buying oil and other raw materials from Russia. Republican politician publicly said that he would change the provisions of the Act to enable exceptions to penalties for countries providing assistance to Ukraine, which would exclude European countries still buying Russian oil and gas.
Graham said on Thursday that he had a good feeling about the chance of the project and said that he was working on him with the White House, Democrats and the Chamber of Representatives, adding that the case “is still moving forward”.
As PAP told PAP one of the Democrats Congressmen, despite Trump's position, some of the Republicans collect signatures under the application to force voting on the act in the House of Representatives. He assured that the initiative would gain signatures of almost all opposition politicians and part of the Republicans, which should allow to collect more than half of the signatures. A more complicated situation is in the Senate, where the Republican management clearly suggests that the president's directive will be guided.
From Washington, Oskar Górzyński, Natalia Dziurdzińska (PAP)
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