'Playing with fire', 'World War III': U.S.-Russia rhetoric heats up

The United States and Russia quarrelled in public on Wednesday over the Ukraine conflict after U.S. President Donald Trump's warned that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was "playing with fire" prompted a Kremlin response mentioning World War III. 

Alongside the heated rhetoric, the actual fighting is intensifying: Kyiv said Moscow had massed 50,000 troops near a Ukrainian region, while both sides are launching swarms of drones. 

Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said that Putin was "playing with fire" and cautioned that "REALLY BAD" things would have happened already to Russia if it was not for Trump himself.

"What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened in Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He's playing with fire," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.

Top Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev, a former president, dismissed Trump's criticism.

"Regarding Trump's words about Putin 'playing with fire' and 'really bad things' happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!" Medvedev wrote in English on the social media platform X.

Trump's envoy, Keith Kellogg, on Wednesday quoted Medvedev's post and said it was reckless.

"Stoking fears of WWIII is an unfortunate, reckless comment... and unfitting of a world power," Kellogg said on X.

After speaking to Trump on May 19 for more than two hours, Putin said that he had agreed to work with Ukraine on a memorandum which would set out the contours of a peace accord including the timing of a ceasefire. 

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that work was continuing on the Russian draft and that once the document was ready it would be handed over to Ukraine.

Kellogg said that Washington awaited Russia's draft of a memorandum on a peace accord. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the next round of talks with Ukraine would be announced soon.

Ukraine, Russia trade drone attacks

Russia said it had downed 296 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions overnight while Ukraine said Russia had launched 88 drones and five ballistic missiles.

After Russia ejected Ukrainian forces from the western Kursk region, Moscow's forces have pushed into neighboring Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine and taken several villages there.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia has gathered 50,000 troops near the northern Sumy region, but added that Kyiv had taken steps to prevent Moscow from conducting a large-scale offensive there.

Putin has repeatedly said he wants a "buffer zone" along Russia's border with Ukraine.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that the U.S.-led NATO military alliance was using the Ukrainian crisis to build up its presence across eastern Europe and the Baltic but that Russia was advancing along the entire front in Ukraine.

Lavrov cites WWII regarding German military spending 

Meanwhile, Lavrov on Wednesday called German plans to build the "strongest" army in Europe "very worrying", citing the world wars of the 20th century.

Germany has since World War II been reluctant to build up its military, and NATO countries have mostly relied on the United States for security. Berlin is one of Kyiv's strongest allies. 

"Many were immediately reminded about the periods of the previous century, when Germany twice became the leading military power and how much trouble this brought," Lavrov said at a security conference in Moscow. 

Merz had vowed to "provide all financial means necessary" for the long-underfunded defense forces of Europe's economic powerhouse.

Berlin has recently stationed a 5,000-strong armored brigade in Lithuania, the first permanent deployment of German troops abroad since World War II. 

Zelenskyy in Germany for talks with Merz 

On Wednesday, Zelenskyy visited Germany to meet Merz for talks focusing on "German support for Ukraine and efforts to secure a ceasefire", German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said.

The two leaders are also expected to discuss EU efforts to levy more sanctions on Moscow amid a lack of progress so far towards a ceasefire and eventual peace talks.

After a joint press conference with Merz and talks with German business leaders, Zelenskyy is due to meet German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace.

After taking over from center-left leader Olaf Scholz, Merz has changed the tone in Berlin and voiced harsh criticism of Putin who, the chancellor charged this week, "obviously sees offers of talks as a sign of weakness".

Scholz had also strongly backed Kyiv but shied away from sending it long-range Taurus missiles, worried that this might escalate tensions with Russia.

Merz has in the past said he favors delivery of Taurus, but his new government has stressed it would no longer detail what arms it sends to Ukraine, preferring a stance of strategic ambiguity.

Zelenskyy proposes three-way meeting with Trump, Putin 

Zelenskyy called for a three-way summit with his Russian and U.S. counterparts. 

"If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don't mind. I am ready for any format," Zelenskyy said in comments to journalists on Tuesday that were published on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian leader said he was "ready" for a "Trump-Putin-me" meeting, and also urged Washington to hit Moscow with a package of hard-hitting sanctions on its banking and energy sectors.

"We are waiting for sanctions from the United States of America," Zelenskyy said.

"Trump confirmed that if Russia does not stop, sanctions will be imposed. We discussed two main aspects with him – energy and the banking system. Will the U.S. be able to impose sanctions on these two sectors? I would very much like that."