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Trump Reportedly Calls Ukraine’s Spider Web Drone Strike on Russia “Badass”
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
US President Donald Trump was reportedly impressed by Ukraine’s long-range drone strike on Russian military airfields over the weekend, calling the attack “badass” and “pretty strong” in private conversations, according to sources who spoke with Axios on June 5.
But Trump fears the escalation could jeopardize fragile diplomatic efforts toward a ceasefire in Ukraine.
In public, Trump has said little about the Ukrainian operation Spider Web, which targeted strategic Russian bomber bases thousands of miles from the front lines. But those close to him say he was clearly struck by the precision and boldness of the attack, Axios reports.
“Pretty strong,” he told one confidant. Another source familiar with the discussions added, “He thought it was badass.”
According to Axios, a Trump adviser offered a vivid analogy: “From an international perspective, you’ve got a chihuahua inflicting some real damage on a much bigger dog.”
Despite the admiration, Trump has voiced concern that the drone strike will provoke a fierce Russian response.
One source said he warned that Russian leader Vladimir Putin would feel compelled to retaliate in kind, setting back the already fragile prospects for diplomacy.
“We want this war to end. We want it to de-escalate,” a person who recently spoke with Trump told Axios. “So if Putin goes crazy in response, yeah, the president has concerns.”
Trump said that Putin had spoken “very strongly” in a recent phone call and made it clear that a response was coming.
“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace,” Trump told reporters.
Putin himself appeared on Russian and Ukrainian television that same day, warning that the drone strikes cast doubt on the possibility of a ceasefire or a direct meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But Zelenskyy pushed back, noting that Putin had long refused meaningful peace talks even before the Ukrainian strike. “Even after all of Russia’s horrific attacks, he is reportedly preparing yet more so-called ‘responses,’” Zelenskyy posted on X.
“It means that with every new strike, with every delay of diplomacy, Russia is giving the finger to the entire world — to all those who still hesitate to increase pressure on it.”
Still, Trump’s admiration for Ukraine’s military ingenuity seems to be undiminished. As one adviser summed it up: “He didn’t expect them to pull off something like this. But they did.”
Earlier, Zelenskyy stated that the so-called peace memorandum proposed by Russia is nothing more than a political ultimatum and will not be taken seriously by either Ukraine or its international partners.
