Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone “crazy”, US President Donald Trump said at the weekend, after two days of intense missile and drone attacks on Ukraine.

“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump posted on his Truth Social media.

Initially silent as hundreds of missiles and drones started to target residential buildings across the country on Saturday May 23 the barrage intensified the next day before Trump finally spoke out on May 25, condemning the attacks.

Speaking to reporters as he boarded Air Force One (video), Trump slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying: “I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people and I don’t like it at all. We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don't like it at all. I'm surprised – We’ll see what we’re gonna do.”

Keith Kellogg, President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, weighed in the same day as the US administration, which has been soft on Putin, joined the rest of the world on the destruction being rained down on civilians in major cities across the country.

Posting a picture of Kyiv in flames, Kellogg said: “This is Kyiv. The indiscriminate killing of women and children at night in their homes is a clear violation of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols designed to protect innocents. These attacks are shameful. Stop the killing. Ceasefire now,” he said in a post on social media.

Senator Don Bacon led Congressional cries for more determined action against Russia. “It is a time for honesty. Peace talks are having zero effect on Putin. His goal is to dominate Ukraine & he won’t stop until he realises he cannot win. The US & Allies must arm Ukraine to the teeth, sanction Russia to the max, & confiscate the $300bn in overseas Russian assets,” he said in a post on social media. “I don’t think Putin cares about diplomacy unless he thinks he’s losing,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on his allies to increase the pressure on Russia in light of the barbaric attacks and the EU’s top diplomat and former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called for “unbearable” sanctions to be imposed.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (UMFA) said in a statement: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns the latest massive terrorist attacks on Ukrainian cities by the Russian Federation on 24 and 25 May 2025. On these days, Russia carried out one of the largest combined attacks since the beginning of its full-scale war of aggression. These barbaric attacks constitute a direct violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The UMFA said that the attacks prove that “the Russian Federation has no intention of stopping its war of aggression against Ukraine and its terror against civilians.”

Ceasefire talks kicked off in Riyadh on February 18 and Trump proposed a 30-day unconditional ceasefire shortly afterwards that Kyiv has accepted. But the Kremlin has been accused of dragging its heels and playing for time since. Following the first direct meeting between Ukraine and Russia since the war started in Istanbul on May 16 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was drawing up a new list of conditions to “ensure a lasting peace”, a document due to be released this week.

However, the UMFA pointed out that “it is particularly cynical that the attack took place against the backdrop of active peace efforts by Ukraine and international partners,” and called again for the full and unconditional ceasefire to begin.

“The Russian Federation demonstrates a complete disregard for international peace initiatives and continues to intensify terror instead of constructive dialogue,” The UMFA said. “We emphasise that Moscow understands only the language of force, economic pressure and isolation. Only decisive actions by the international community, increased sanctions pressure and the provision of necessary defence equipment to Ukraine can force the aggressor to stop terror.”

Following a meeting of the top four leaders of the coalition of the willing (CoW4) – Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the newly installed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz – in Kyiv on the weekend of May 11, the EU has threatened new “bone-crushing” sanctions on Russia in addition to the recently approved seventeenth sanctions package that have been postponed until now as diplomacy played out. Those sanctions are increasingly likely to be imposed now. In particular, Senator Lindsey Graham has drawn up a bipartisan bill that will impose an extreme 500% tariff on any country that does business with Russia, or in particular, buys its oil.

Some have speculated that Russia is repeating the tactics of last year when it heavily bombed Ukraine in a barrage in January deplete Ukraine’s air defence ammunition, before launching another barrage in March when the skies were open, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

With reports that Ukraine is once again running low on air defence missiles, the UMFA called on partners to urgently supply it with more ammunition, “including by providing additional air defence capabilities, Patriot, IRIS-T, NASAMS and other systems, and ammunition for them.”