US President Donald Trump posts on Truth Social: "Russia has to get moving. Too many people [are] DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war - A war that should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened, if I were President!!!"
- Trump's comments come with his Middle East envoy currently in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin (see 'US-RUSSIA: US Envoy Witkoff In Russia Ahead Of Putin Meeting', 0954BST).
- Over the past couple of weeks the US' president's language towards Russia has become more critical, coming after a period in which most of the White House's fire was initially directed towards Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In early March, Trump threatened Russia with 'large-scale' sanctions if Russia did not show progress towards an agreement. In late March, Trump said in an NBC interview that "You could say that I was very angry, pissed off, when... Putin started getting into Zelensky's credibility, because that's not going in the right location,"