With his frustration increasing, Trump has lashed out at the Russian president on Tuesday as Moscow hit Ukraine with some of the three-year-old war's deadliest drone and missile attacks while not moving forward on ceasefire efforts.
"What Vladimir Putin doesn't realise is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened in Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He's playing with fire," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
The US president, who prides himself on having friendly relations with Putin, did not elaborate.
Top Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev dismissed Trump's criticism.
"Regarding Trump's words about Putin 'playing with fire' and 'really bad things' happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing - WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!" Medvedev wrote in English on the social media platform X.
Trump in a post on Sunday said Putin had "gone absolutely CRAZY" by unleashing a massive aerial attack on Ukraine.
Putin said after a two-hour call with Trump last week that Russia was ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum about a future peace accord.
The Russian leader said part of this work would be defining a possible ceasefire, including its time frame. Ukraine, its European allies and the US have all urged Putin to accept an immediate, unconditional ceasefire lasting at least 30 days.
The Kremlin has said it could not estimate how long drafting the memorandum would take, and it said on Tuesday it was still working on it. Kyiv and European governments have accused Moscow of stalling while it advances on the battlefield.
Trump's social media blast on Tuesday came as Kyiv suffered another battlefield setback with Russian forces capturing four villages in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region.
Trump has so far held off on major new sanctions against Russia, though US officials say a package of sanctions has been prepared should he decide to do so. Trump is also under pressure from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to increase military assistance to Ukraine.
"They in Russia must clearly feel the consequences of what they are doing against Ukraine," Zelensky said in a video address on Tuesday evening.
The Russian advances follow some of the biggest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine since Russia began the full-scale war in early 2022.
Russian air defences destroyed or intercepted 112 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period, including a swarm of drones repelled while headed for Moscow, officials said on Wednesday.
Russia's Defence Ministry, in a post on the Telegram messaging app said 59 drones were downed over the Bryansk region on the Ukrainian border, the others were intercepted over five different regions.
The ministry announcement made no mention of drones being downed in the region surrounding Moscow.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, in a series of notices posted in rapid succession on Telegram, listed 27 drones he said had been intercepted while heading for the Russian capital.
"Ministry of Defence air defence units continue to repel the attacks of enemy drones," Sobyanin wrote.
Sobyanin made no mention of casualties or damage, saying only that recovery teams were examining drone fragments at the sites where they hit the ground.
Russia and Ukraine fired large numbers of missiles at each other over the past week.
with DPA
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