‘You’ll Be Seeing Things Happen’ – Trump Warns Putin After Hospital Strike.
US President Donald Trump has signaled he will take a tougher line with Moscow after it rejected his peace mediation efforts and escalated attacks across Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump has hinted at a strong response on Friday after Russia struck a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s Kharkiv overnight.
Before getting on a helicopter at the White House to examine the flooding in Texas, a reporter asked Trump if he had heard of the Kharkiv attack that injured close to a dozen people. In response, he issued a cryptic warning.
“I know. You’ll be seeing things happen,” Trump said, according to The Independent.
The day before, Trump had said a “major statement” on Russia would come on Monday after resuming weapons aid to Kyiv. Earlier, the Pentagon briefly halted weapon supplies for audits, ostensibly without consulting other departments.
“I’m disappointed in Russia, but we’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks,” Trump told NBC News. “I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday,” he said, declining to elaborate.
Moscow’s refusal to comply with Trump’s ceasefire proposal has seemingly irked the US president, prompting a potential U-turn in Washington’s policy towards the warring parties.
Although the Trump administration has spent months pressuring Ukraine to make concessions for a swift end to the war, Moscow’s refusal to accept a US-mediated ceasefire – already endorsed by Kyiv – appears to have taken its toll.
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On July 4, after a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump said he is “not happy” with the call as Putin reportedly conveyed Moscow’s maximalist position once again.
Later, Trump openly voiced his frustration with Putin by saying, “We get a lot of bulls**t thrown at us by Putin.”
Putin, in one of his earlier phone calls with Trump, told the latter he would propose a “memorandum” towards a ceasefire with Kyiv instead of accepting a ceasefire.
While Trump has hinted at an imminent response – like more sanctions – State Secretary Marco Rubio has also hinted at a “new and different approach” proposed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their meeting in Malaysia on Thursday.
While Rubio did not disclose what the “new approach” proposed by Moscow means, he said he would brief Trump on those ideas, potentially influencing Washington’s response to Russia in the coming days.