US President Donald Trump has gone on a rant, condemning Russian air strikes in Ukraine and complaining that the attacks are killing civilians. Trump says about Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Something has happened to him, he has gone absolutely CRAZY.”
This was posted on Truth Social. Trump said the same thing to reporters in an update on Ukraine.
Trump complained that Russia’s actions are undermining the negotiating process which, in the president’s view, is supposed to be arranging a ceasefire. That is his understanding, it is also Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s view and the view of the key European players.
But it is not Putin’s view, although Putin has agreed that Russia will put forth a proposal on what could lead to a ceasefire, which should be revealed soon. The Russians, nonetheless, have made clear that the war will continue unless and until substantive agreements are reached with Ukraine.
In fact, Zelensky says the only matter Ukraine will discuss with Russia is a ceasefire, nothing else until a ceasefire is in place. What all this means in practice is that under current circumstances, the prospects for any negotiated agreement are poor.
There is a tendency for the various interlocutors to hear only what they want to hear and to reject any dissonance if it undermines their goals. It is also the case that the Russians appear to have been too clever by half in agreeing to discuss a ceasefire when they opposed it in reality.
In the ongoing fighting, Russia is expanding its military operations in the Sumy region, adjacent to Kursk, and Putin has hinted that taking over Sumy is possible, as it could constitute part of a buffer zone to protect Russian territory.
There are reports that Ukraine is evacuating civilians from the Sumy area, confirming that a new Russian offensive is gathering steam. Elsewhere along the line of contact, Russian forces are moving more quickly, picking off villages and small towns and well along in isolating key strongholds such as Pokrovsk, an important Ukrainian logistics hub.
Crossing a Line
The Russians have claimed that the Ukrainians attacked Putin’s helicopter over Kursk with 46 drones, all of which were allegedly shot down by Russian air defenses. The incident, as reported by the Russians, would appear to violate mutual pledges that go back to the mediation effort of then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Bennett met with Putin on March 5, 2022, in Moscow as part of a peace-making effort. He sought and got a pledge from Putin that the Russians would not try to kill Zelensky. Subsequently, Bennett telephoned Zelensky to pass on Putin’s pledge.
The implication of the Bennett-Putin agreement protecting Zelensky is that the agreement also protected Putin from Ukrainian attacks, although that part of the deal was not explicitly stated.
Prior to Putin’s agreement with Bennett, there were attacks on Zelensky’s bunker in Kyiv, allegedly organized by the Wagner group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin and by Chechen special forces. The story, as told by Bennett, was revealed in a Hebrew video interview broadcast in Israel on February 4, 2023.
The alleged attack on Putin’s helicopter over Kursk took place on May 20, 2025, according to Yury Dashkin, a commander of a Russian air defense division.
President Putin’s trip to Kursk had not been announced in advance, and Russia published news of the trip only after he returned to Moscow. If the Russian story is true, it raises questions about how the Ukrainians would know of Putin’s trip to Kursk.
There are various possibilities, including intercepts of Russian military communications, spies inside Russia or inside Russia’s military command or sophisticated surveillance by Ukraine’s allies. Given that the Ukrainians used drones and not missiles or jet aircraft may indicate that the alleged attack on the helicopter was hastily arranged.
Trump did not mention the attack on Putin’s helicopter. Instead, Trump suggested that maybe Putin was trying to take over all of Ukraine.
Trump is now threatening new sanctions on Russia, but that move will probably end any reconciliation between Moscow and Washington. The implication is that the US will find itself without a concrete role in ending the war.
In the bigger picture, Washington’s attempt to lower its profile in Europe may turn out to be politically and militarily impossible, forcing the US to try and contend with both Russia and China simultaneously. As US Vice President J D Vance admitted in his commencement address at the US Naval Academy, “the era of uncontested US dominance is over.”
If the Russian claims are true, and if there was a drone attack on Putin’s helicopter in an attempt to kill him, then a line has been crossed and the Bennett-arranged deal to protect Zelensky has disintegrated.
It might also go far to explain why Trump thinks Putin has “gone absolutely CRAZY.”
Stephen Bryen is a special correspondent to Asia Times and former US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy. This article, which originally appeared on his Substack newsletter Weapons and Strategy, is republished with permission.
