US President Donald Trump at the Oval Office in Washington, 5 June 2025. EPA-EFE/CHRIS KLEPONIS
Ukraine’s drone strikes on military airfields deep inside Russia on Sunday left US President Donald Trump “privately frustrated” and reignited a White House debate about whether Washington should abandon Kyiv altogether, The Atlantic reported on Thursday.
Having expressed annoyance at the Kremlin’s unwillingness take meaningful steps towards peace in recent weeks, Trump was frustrated by the Security Service of Ukraine’s historic attack last weekend, fearing it would prolong the conflict, The Atlantic said, citing multiple administration officials who spoke to the outlet anonymously.
Codenamed Operation Spider’s Web, the Ukrainian attack consisted of a series of coordinated drone strikes on Russian military airfields across the country that reportedly damaged 40 Russian aircraft, destroying at least 10, and causing €1.75 billion in damages.
One source told The Atlantic that following the drone strikes, Trump echoed right-wing criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for engaging in what he saw as attention-grabbing behaviour. While he was impressed by the boldness of Kyiv’s attack, Trump reportedly felt Zelensky should have been focusing on the second round of negotiations, which took place in Istanbul the following day.
Prominent American conservative voices, including Steve Bannon, sharply criticised Ukraine over the strike and advocated that Washington distance itself from Kyiv. On his podcast, Bannon accused Ukraine of undermining ceasefire negotiations and warned that the strike risked triggering a severe Russian response. According to another administration official cited by The Atlantic, Bannon has been relaying similar arguments directly to senior White House advisers.
Since Trump returned to office in January, the US has not taken steps to renew military support packages for Ukraine, and temporarily suspended military aid and intelligence sharing on 3 March following a hostile White House meeting with Zelensky at the end of February.
To date, Trump has also withheld support for a bipartisan Senate initiative spearheaded by his ally, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, that seeks to impose “bone-crushing” economic sanctions on Russia and its trading partners.