President Donald Trump privately admired Ukraine’s drone attack on a fleet of Russian warplanes last weekend, telling confidants it was “strong” and “badass,” Axios reported Thursday.
However, given his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the aftermath, Trump was concerned that the remote attacks on Russian air bases will make it more difficult to reach a ceasefire between the warring countries, according to the report.
“We want this war to end. We want it to deescalate. So if Putin goes crazy in response, yeah, the president has concerns,” one source told Axios.
Publicly, Trump said, “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace,” he said regarding his call with Putin.
U.S. estimates said the Ukrainian attack hit 20 Russian warplanes, destroying 10 of them. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s estimate put the amount of planes struck at closer to 40.
Ukraine used drones to strike the heavy bomber planes at air bases in Siberia and the far north over the weekend.
“From an international perspective, you’ve got a chihuahua inflicting some real damage on a much bigger dog,” a Trump adviser told the outlet.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
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