🗽 WASHINGTON/MOSCOW: Presi-dent Donald Trump warned that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was "playing with fire" in a social media post on Tuesday, as the US weighs whether to tar-get Moscow with additional sanctions over its long-range missile and drone barrage against Ukraine.
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🗣️ "What Vladimir Putin doesn't realise is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD," Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social platform. "He's playing with fire!"
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💥 Russia has in recent days escalated its aerial attacks against Ukraine, launching hun-dreds of drones and dozens of missiles at targets across the country.
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✝️ The escalation came even as Trump urged officials from both countries to negotiate a cease fire agreement in talks medi ated by the Vatican.
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📰 The post came hours after CNN reported that Trump could move ahead with new sanctions on Russia in the coming days, and that administration officials have drawn up options in recent weeks for the US to ratchet up pressure on the Kremlin.
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💬 Trump himself said on Sun day he would "absolutely" con-sider new sanctions, but has so far resisted efforts led by Senate Republicans and European leaders to intensify measures against Russia.
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😡 "He's killing a lot of people," Trump said of Putin on Sunday. "I don't know what's wrong with him. What the hell happened to him?"
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🏛️ Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is among Trump's biggest allies in the upper chamber, said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed pub-lished on Tuesday that he had coordinated his legislative efforts on a Russia sanctions bill with the White House.
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🗨️ "If Mr. Putin continues to play games, the Senate will act," Graham said. "I'm hoping for the best, but when it comes to the thug in Moscow, we should all prepare for more of the same."
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🇷🇺 Russia blames Ukraine
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🎯 Russia said on Tuesday that its massive aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent days were a "response" to escalating Ukrain-ian drone strikes on its own civilians, accusing Kyiv of trying to "disrupt" peace efforts.
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🎖️ Moscow said it had only hit "military targets" in Ukraine but Ukraine said at least 13 civillans were killed in Russian attacks on Sunday.
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