Donald Trump has targeted Russian leader Vladimir Putin for his “bad leadership” as he issued a fresh threat of “powerful tariffs” on Moscow.
During a nearly hour-long speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, the US president said Russia’s war in Ukraine was “making [Putin] look bad” because it was “supposed to be a little skirmish”.
“It shows you what leadership is, what bad leadership can do to a country. The only question now is how many lives will be needlessly lost on both sides,” he added, claiming that the war has led to the death of between 5,000 to 7,000 young soldiers “on both sides every single week”.
The US president has grown increasingly disillusioned with the Russian leader, particularly following Russia’s repeated incursions into Nato airspace in recent weeks, including in Poland, Romania, and Estonia.
His speech came only hours after Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen said she “cannot rule out” Russian involvement in the shutdown of Copenhagen Airport due to drone activity this week.
Airports in Copenhagen and Oslo, Norway, shut down for four hours on Monday evening, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded after drones were spotted circling in the restricted zones.
“We have seen drones over Poland that should not have been there. We have seen activity in Romania. We have seen violations of Estonian airspace,” Ms Frederiksen told reporters.
“This is a serious attack on critical Danish infrastructure,” she added.
In what some fear is the latest – and by far the deepest – incursion into Nato territory, Copenhagen airport announced it was closed for takeoffs and landings after “two to three larger drones” were seen flying in the area at around 8:46pm local time (7:46pm UK time).
A spokesperson afterwards said all air traffic at the airport had been suspended, without giving further details. According to FlightRadar, at least 15 flights were diverted to other airports, The Kyiv Independent reported.
At 9:10pm (8:10pm UK time), Oslo police announced that two foreign nationals had been arrested for flying drones within the prohibited zone near Oslo Airport.
Copenhagen airport resumed operations shortly after midnight local time, with flights resuming in Oslo after around four hours of restricted airspace.
On Tuesday morning, Danish police warned that a “capable operator” was behind the drone flights.
“It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the will and the tools to show off in this way,” Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen said.
Police initially refused to comment on an X/Twitter post by Volodymyr Zelensky, which claimed Russia was behind the airspace violation without providing evidence. Mr Zelensky appears to have taken the post down.
The Ukrainian president is engaged in an intense round of diplomacy at the UN General Assembly in New York, where he is set to meet Trump.
He will continue his relentless push for Washington to issue stronger sanctions against Putin, with Mr Trump sounding increasingly likely to comply.
The US president told delegates in New York that the White House was prepared to issue a “strong round of powerful tariffs” on Moscow.
“In the event that Russia isn’t ready to make a deal then the United States is fully prepared to impose a strong round of powerful tariffs which would stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly,” he said.
But for these to be effective, European countries would have to follow suit, he added, as he slammed the continued import of Russian oil by several Nato member states as “embarrassing”.
Nato, meanwhile, continues to rally against the Russian incursions, with the North Atlantic Council hitting out at Moscow’s “increasingly irresponsible behaviour”.
The alliance demanded that the Russian incursions stop, and said Moscow bore full responsibility for its recent actions “which are escalatory, risk miscalculation and endanger lives”.
