- Russia fired “355 Shahed-type drones”, nine cruise missiles.
- Enhanced missile range for Ukraine would be dangerous: Kremlin.
- Trump calls Putin “crazy” in rare rebuke of Russian leader.
Russia fired its biggest ever drone barrage on Ukraine, authorities said on Monday, just hours after Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin “crazy” and warned Moscow risked new sanctions if it kept up its deadly bombardment.
The US president has sought to broker an end to the three-year war, but has failed to extract major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations and several phone calls between him and Russia´s president.
For three consecutive nights Russia has pummelled Ukraine with large-scale drone attacks, saturating its air defences and killing at least 13 people on Sunday, officials said.
Russia fired “355 Shahed-type drones” including decoys, in the largest drone attack of the invasion between Sunday night and early Monday, as well as nine cruise missiles, Ukraine’s air force said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that there were “no longer any range restrictions” on arms supplied by Western allies to Ukraine, allowing Kyiv to attack “military positions in Russia”.
It was not immediately clear when the decision was made nor which countries had changed their policy.
The Kremlin said any Western decision to lift range limits on arms delivered to Ukraine would be “dangerous” and “at odds” with peace efforts.
In a rare rebuke of the Russian leader, Trump said on social media late Sunday: “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely crazy!”
“I’ve always said that he wants all of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”
Earlier, Trump told reporters he was “not happy” about Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and was “absolutely” considering increasing sanctions on Moscow.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped Trump’s anger at Moscow translated “into action”, and that the US president realised Putin was not ready for peace.
‘Critical moment’
The Kremlin played down Trump’s criticism, saying Putin was taking measures “necessary to ensure Russia’s security”.
“This is a very critical moment, which is fraught with emotional stress for everyone, as well as emotional reactions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks showed Russia had a sense of “impunity”.
“The increase in Russian strikes should be met with increased sanctions,” he said on social media.
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed towns and cities, and spurred the biggest crisis in relations with the West since the Cold War.
Kyiv did not report any deaths from the latest drone attack, but said Russian shelling in the last 24 hours had killed a civilian man in the northern Sumy region.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat warned it was becoming difficult to counter the sheer number of drones Moscow was firing.
“We need rational and cheaper ways to shoot them down,” he told Ukrainian TV.
A Ukrainian military source told AFP that Kyiv was “somehow fighting” with available air defence capabilities and that there was “no need to panic”.
“To maintain our defence, we need deliveries of Western weapons,” the source said, adding that deliveries of Patriot missiles as well as NASAMS medium range air defence and IRIS-T short range systems were especially important for Ukraine.
Russia said it had captured two border villages in the Sumy region, where it has been mounting an offensive for weeks.
Diplomatic efforts
Diplomatic efforts to end the war have heightened in recent weeks, with Russian and Ukrainian officials holding direct talks in Istanbul earlier this month for the first time in three years.
They each sent back 1,000 people over the weekend in their biggest ever prisoner exchange, while Russia said it was preparing a document outlining its peace terms.
Any more potential POW exchanges would depend on further talks with Ukraine, Peskov told journalists ahead of Putin´s meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, adding that Moscow was still working on a ceasefire memorandum.
Moscow has repeatedly rejected proposals for a 30-day ceasefire from Kyiv and its Western allies, while grinding forward on the front line.
Instead, Putin offered to work on a memorandum stating conditions for a ceasefire, sparking critisism from Ukraine of stalling the talks.
Ukraine´s SBU security service said Monday it detained several people, including a teenager, for acting as “informants” for Moscow, guiding Russian strikes on the country.
