US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was “very angry, cursed” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, NBC reported, marking a sharp change in change as Washington tries to end the war in Ukraine.
NBC’s Kristen Welker said Trump had called her to express her rage over Putin, questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s future as a leader – something that Trump himself has done.
Welker, on his NBC show “Meet the Press” on Sunday, quoted directly from a phone call in the morning with the president.
“If Russia and I are unable to make an appointment to stop the blood edition in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault … I will put secondary tariffs on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump said.
Trump told Welker he “was very angry, cursed” over Putin’s recent comments about Zelensy’s credibility and talked about new leadership in Ukraine.
The US president has been pushing for a quick end to the more than three-year war since accession, but his administration has not reached a breakthrough despite negotiations with both sides.
Putin rejected a common American-Ukrainian plan for a 30-day ceasefire, and on Friday, Zelensky suggested to be removed from Embed as part of the peace process.
Trump told NBC that Putin knows he’s angry but said he has “a very good relationship with him” and “Anger is spreading quickly … if he’s doing the right thing.”
Russia strengthened
Heating of ties between Washington and Moscow since Trump’s return to the office and his threats of stopping supporting Kyiv have strengthened Russia on the battlefield as it pursues its floundering invasion.
Ukraine has accused Russia of pulling out conversations without the intention of stopping his offensive with fresh attacks on the northeastern border town of Kharkiv.
Six strikes hit overnight on Saturday to Sunday, wounding staff underwent treatment at a military hospital and killed at least two people in a residential building, according to Ukrainian officials.
Russian forces also caught a village only seven kilometers from the border with Ukraine’s central DNIPROPROVSK region in their latest progress, Moscow said Sunday.
The Kremlin troops have not crossed the border of the region since their offensive began in 2022, but they have been painting against it for months in the hope of a breakthrough.
No ceasefire
Putin, in power for 25 years and repeatedly elected in votes without competition, has often questioned Zelensky’s “legitimacy” as president after the initial five -year mandate of the Ukrainian leader ended in May 2024.
According to Ukrainian law, elections have been suspended in times of major military conflict, and Zelensky’s domestic opponents have all said that no ballot should be held after the conflict.
Trump himself had Rocky Relations with Zelensky, who called him a “dictator” and collided with him live on the camera in the White House last month.
Zelensky, in his evening address on Saturday, tried to gather his country’s allies against Putin.
“For long now, America’s proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table without an appropriate response from Russia,” Zelensky said.
“There could already be a ceasefire if there was real pressure on Russia,” he added, thanking these countries, “which understands this” and has increased the sanction pressure on the Kremlin.
Both Moscow and Kyiv agreed on the concept of a Black Sea weapon after conversations with US officials earlier this week, but Russia said the agreement would not come into force until Ukraine’s allies lifted certain sanctions.
Trump explained the secondary customs threat and told NBC that it would do so that “If you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States.”
“There will be a 25 percent duty on all oil, a 25 to 50 -point duty on all oil,” he said without giving further details.