Trump calls out Putin as ‘misguided,’ says US could send Ukraine Patriot missile systems

President Trump took a rare dig at his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, following this week’s NATO summit in the Netherlands before telling a Ukrainian reporter that “we’re going to see” if Washington is able to supply Patriot missile systems and munitions to assist Kyiv in its war against Moscow’s invasion.

“I know one thing: He’d like to settle, he’d like to get out of this thing. It’s a mess for him,” Trump told reporters in The Hague before departing the two-day gathering of Western leaders.

“I consider him a person that’s, I think, been misguided. I’m very surprised, actually. I thought we would have had that settled.”

Gray TV reporter Jon Decker had pressed Trump about whether he views Russia as an adversary or whether he believes that the Kremlin has its sights set on territory beyond Ukraine.

“It’s possible. I mean, it’s possible,” Trump replied to the latter question.

Despite some of his high-profile dustups with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump also admitted that Putin was the “more difficult” leader to engage.

“Vladimir Putin has been more difficult. Frankly, I’ve had some problems with Zelensky,” Trump told reporters when asked about his campaign pledge to end the war in 24 hours. “It’s been more difficult than other wars.”

Trump also showed empathy for BBC Ukraine correspondent Myroslava Petsa after she asked the president “whether or not the US is ready to sell anti-air missile systems to Ukraine.”

“We know that Russia has been pounding Ukraine really heavily right now,” she added.

Before addressing her question, Trump asked Petsa: “Are you living there, yourself, now?”

“My husband is there now,” she said. “And me with the kids, I’m in Warsaw [Poland], actually. Because he wanted me to.”

The visibly moved Trump responded, “wow, that’s amazing,” before asking whether Petsa’s husband was “a soldier,” which she confirmed.

“Wow, that’s rough stuff, right?” he told the reporter. “That’s tough.”

Trump then went on to affirm that Kyiv wants to buy the weapons from the US — and pledged that “we’re going to see if we can make some available.”

“You know, they’re very hard to get. We need them too,” the president said. “We were supplying them to Israel, and they’re very effective — 100% effective. Hard to believe how effective. And they do want that more than any other thing, as you probably know.”

“That’s very good question, and I wish you a lot of luck,” Trump told Petsa. “I mean, I can see it’s very upsetting to you.”

Trump has been growing impatient with Putin, lashing out in response to some of Russia’s most brutal attacks on Ukraine — such as a barrage of 300 drone and missile attacks last month, which prompted the president to rip the Russian leader as “crazy.”

Still, the administration has been reticent about ratcheting up sanctions on Russia, despite a growing push from Congress to do so.

“If we did what everybody here wants us to do, and that is come in and crush them with more sanctions, we probably lose our ability to talk to them about the cease-fire, and then who’s talking to them?” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Politico in an interview on the sidelines of the summit.

Trump met with Zelensky earlier Wednesday, after which the the Ukrainian leader said he “congratulated President Trump on the successful operation in the Middle East.”

“It is important that the US actions have weakened not only their nuclear program but also their drone production capabilities. We will continue to keep an eye on the situation,” he said.

“We discussed the protection of our people with the president — first and foremost, the purchase of American air defense systems to shield our cities, our people, churches, and infrastructure,” Zelensky explained in a readout.

“Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American weapons manufacturers. Europe can help. We also discussed the potential for co-production of drones. We can strengthen each other.”