Putin 'killing too many people,' Trump says
U.S. President Donald Trump issued new criticism against Russian President Vladimir Putin on Jan. 3 as uncertainty continues to grow around the fate of U.S.-led Ukraine-Russia peace talks.
"I'm not thrilled with Putin. He's killing too many people," Trump told reporters during a news conference announcing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's capture.
Trump's comments come as the U.S. president's administration continues to hold talks with Ukrainian and Russian officials in an attempt to broker a peace deal in the nearly four-year-long full-scale war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a framework for a revised 20-point peace plan on Dec. 23, after a initial U.S.-backed 28-point plan was vehemently rejected by Kyiv as "capitulation."
Despite Russia's participation in peace talks, Moscow has repeatedly rejected a ceasefire, with Putin espousing maximalist demands to end the war.
In recent weeks, Moscow has recently been spreading disinformation in an apparent attempt to undermine the U.S.-led peace negotiations. Russia claimed that a Ukrainian drone attack targeted Russian President Vladimir Putin's residence on Dec. 29. Both Ukraine and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency denied that such an attempted attack had occurred.
"I think that we’re making progress, but that’s a war that should have never happened," Trump told reporters.
On Jan. 2, Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service warned that Russia may be preparing "a large-scale provocation with human casualties" as part of its efforts to disrupt the U.S.-mediated peace talks.
The Foreign Intelligence Service said that it predicts with "high probability" that Russian special services may be planning armed provocation, expected to take place on the eve or on the day of Christmas according to the Julian calendar, Jan. 7. The potential provocation may happen at a religious building or other sites of high symbolic significance, either in Russia or in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, it added.
Russia has continued to increase attacks against Ukrainian cities in recent month, targeting the country energy grids.
