The US midnight raid in Venezuela and capture of its president Nicolas Maduro and his wife to face federal drug-trafficking charges had led to an appeal from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a similar raid against Russia’s Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war. But a similar action against Putin – who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court – is “unlikely” at least for now.
Asked about the possibility of a similar raid in Moscow, US President Donald Trump said such a move was “not necessary” even as he voiced deep disappointment over the Ukraine war.
‘Great relationship with Putin’
“I don’t think it’s going to be necessary… I’ve always had a great relationship with him [Putin]. I’m very disappointed. I settled eight wars; I thought this was going to be in the middle of the pack or maybe one of the easier ones. The last month, they’ve lost 31,000 people, many of them Russian soldiers and the Russian economy is doing poorly,” Trump said while responding to a question by Fox News reporter.
US ‘knows what it should do next’: Zelenskyy
Days after Machado was taken into custody, Zelenskyy, in a thinly veiled threat directed at Vladimir Putin, suggested that if such actions define the treatment of a “dictator,” then the US is prepared for its next move. This comes as the Russian leader faces several International Criminal Court warrants related to alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Russia on Friday bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack, killing at least four people in the capital. For only the second time in the nearly 4-year-old war, it used a powerful, new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile came days after Ukraine and its allies reported major progress toward agreeing on how to defend the country from further Moscow aggression if a US-led peace deal is struck.
The attack also coincides with a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington after Russia condemned the US seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic. Trump has signalled willingness to impose hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Moscow, which has given no public signal it is willing to budge from its maximalist demands on Ukraine.