The Daily Populous Monday May 26th, 2025 morning edition
Authored by nbcnews.com and submitted by drjjoyner

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the United States and the international community Sunday for remaining silent after Russia unleashed what Ukrainian officials described as the largest aerial assault on the country since the war began.

The silence, however, didn't last. President Donald Trump said Sunday on Truth Social that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "needlessly killing a lot of people."

A Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday. Gleb Garanich / Reuters

"I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him," Trump wrote. "He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever."

Putin, Trump said, wants to take over all of Ukraine. But, he warned, "it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”

Russian forces launched a massive overnight barrage Saturday as 367 drones and missiles targeted more than 30 cities and villages across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv. At least 12 people were killed, according to officials, including three children, in the northern region of Zhytomyr.

Emergency services evacuate a resident after her house was destroyed by a Russian air attack in Khmelnytskyi region, Ukraine, on Sunday. Ukrainian Emergency Service / AP

“The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”

Trump said in his social media statement that Zelenskyy is not helping his country's cause by lashing out at the United States.

“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop," Trump said, blaming the war on Zelenskyy, Putin and former President Joe Biden.

I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred," Trump said.

Saturday’s massive air raid follows a drone attack Friday that killed four people and coincided with the final day of a large-scale prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.

A Ukrainian serviceman hugs his wife after returning from captivity during a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine on Sunday. Efrem Lukatsky / AP

Meanwhile, frustrations remain over shifting U.S. policy as Ukraine and its allies push for a ceasefire deal.

Trump has called for an end to the war, but his administration has taken a softer line on Russia than previous ones, shifting American policy from supporting Ukraine toward accepting some of Russia’s account of the war.

The approach marks a sharp departure from the full-throated support Ukraine enjoyed from Washington under Biden.

While Ukraine and its European allies have pushed for a 30-day ceasefire as a step toward ending the three-year war, those efforts suffered a setback last week when Trump declined to impose additional sanctions on Moscow for not agreeing to an immediate pause in fighting.

On Monday, Trump had a two-hour phone call with Putin, during which he appeared to have dropped his earlier insistence on a 30-day truce and suggested that he could walk away entirely from the negotiations to end a war that he once promised to end on “day one” of his second presidential term.

Moving independently of Washington, the European Union and the United Kingdom announced a new round of sanctions last week, targeting Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” — roughly 200 vessels used to transport Russian oil exports globally.

The E.U. said these were the 17th set of Europeans sanctions imposed on Russia since it invaded its neighbor in 2022.

In Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that the administration would continue to push an existing bill that could impose a 500% tariff on buyers of Russian oil and gas if there was no progress on a peace deal.

But, he added that Trump “believes that right now, you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking, and there’s value in us being able to talk and drive them to get to the table.”

While the bombs continue to fall on Ukraine, Zelenskyy posted on Telegram Sunday that the third phase of the “1,000-for-1,000” exchange agreement had been completed after two exchanges last week, with pictures of returning soldiers draped in Ukrainian flags.

The swap, the latest of dozens of exchanges since the war began and the biggest involving Ukrainian civilians, has not indicated an end to widespread fighting. Battles have continued along the roughly 620-mile front line, killing tens of thousands of soldiers.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Moscow would give Ukraine a draft document outlining its conditions for a “sustainable, long-term, comprehensive” peace agreement, once the ongoing prisoner exchange had finished.

Trump congratulated both sides after they struck the prisoner exchange deal in Istanbul.

But after Russia’s largest attack yet, Kyiv remains wary of easing pressure.

“Without pressure, nothing will change and Russia and its allies will only build up forces for such murders in Western countries,” Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.

“Moscow will fight as long as it has the ability to produce weapons.”

Quinn-Helle on May 25th, 2025 at 14:15 UTC »

Russia is an enemy of the west.

Future-Suit6497 on May 25th, 2025 at 13:52 UTC »

Trump busy lecturing West Point students on the pitfalls of trophy wives.

THEPIGWHODIDIT on May 25th, 2025 at 13:48 UTC »

Trump is the most unreliable person in the world