Early Thursday morning, Russia shot 70 missiles and launched 145 drones towards Ukraine. Most of them raced to Kyiv in the most murderous attack on the capital in nine months. At least 12 people were killed and 90 were injured as casualties were trapped under the rubble of residential buildings. The capital’s terrified residents were forced back into their air raid shelters, some taking small children and pets with them.
Trump’s response to this resumption of terror? A tepid post on his Truth Social account that seemed most concerned with the timing of the carnage. “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP!” Trump wrote. “Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”
The president expanded on his post in an Oval Office appearance later in the day. “I didn't like last night. I wasn't happy with it, and we're in the midst of talking peace, and missiles were fired, and I was not happy with it,” Trump said, noticeably using a passive tense and not blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin directly.
Another US president might have offered condolences to Ukraine’s dead, pointed out that deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime, and threatened consequences for the leader responsible for the attacks. But Trump’s response was consistent with his long practice of refusing to criticize Moscow’s assault on innocents and ignoring the responsibility of the Russian president who ordered them.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who blasted Putin as a “thug” and a “gangster” during his 2016 presidential campaign, was on the Oval Office sofa on Thursday afternoon. He borrowed Trump’s tortured tenses in a way that almost implied Russian missiles sent themselves to Kyiv. “What happened last night with those missile strikes should remind everybody why this war needs to end,” he said. “It's horrible, those missiles landed, but what's even worse is there are … people that were alive yesterday that are not alive today because this war continues.”
The administration’s limp language about Putin contrasted with the fierce dressing down handed to Volodymyr Zelensky in that same Oval Office in March. Trump went after the Ukrainian president again this week after he ruled out recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea. (Trump has denied the US wants him to do this, but there are reports that Washington may take such a step itself).
On Truth Social, Trump complained about “Inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country.”
The contrast in the president’s tone towards the two leaders is remarkable.
“When Zelensky dares to speak the truth, Trump truly slams him,” John Herbst, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, told Paula Newton on CNN International. “When Putin murders civilians with ballistic missiles he’s merely corrected. Or slightly chastised.”
