Russia on Monday reacted to the US President Donald Trump’s criticism of Vladimir Putin and said their president was “defending” Russia and the strikes were “retaliatory” in nature.Trump had called his counterpart “crazy” for carrying out a massive drone attack in Ukraine, its biggest there since the war began in February 2022.“President Putin is taking the decisions that are necessary to ensure the security of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.In a strongly worded post, Trump had said: “He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. 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! Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does.Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop. This is a War that would never have started if I were President. This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not “Trump’s,” I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.”Russia launched 355 drones at Ukraine overnight in what Kyiv as the largest drone assault since the 2022 invasion. The massive attack came just a day after Russian strikes claimed the lives of 13 people.Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched “355 Shahed-type drones”—including decoys—along with nine cruise missiles in what officials confirmed as the largest drone assault since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ignat told AFP that the overnight barrage marked a new high in the scale of such attacks. The massive drone strike followed what Kyiv called a weekend of “terror.” While no deaths have been reported from the drone attack itself, Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling over the past 24 hours killed one civilian man in the northeastern Sumy region, an area frequently targeted in recent months. Authorities in Kyiv said air raid sirens lasted for six hours during the assault. In western Ukraine’s Khmelnytsky region, 18 residential buildings were damaged, while in the southern Odesa region, a 14-year-old boy was reported injured.
