Furious Donald Trump turns his fire on Putin in explosive rant: He's stringing me along!

Donald Trump has broken his silence after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky - and turned on Vladimir Putin. In a rant on his social media platform Truth Social he accused the Russian President of stringing him along and at the same time blamed Democrat Presidents Obama and Biden for a "mess".

mess that was left to me by Obama and Biden, and what a mess it is. With all of that being said, there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?' Too many people are dying!!!"

Mr Trump began his post by mentioning the "Failing New York Times", rekindling old animosity he appears to have for the publication. He began: "No matter what deal I make with respect to / , no matter how good it is, even if it's the greatest deal ever made, the Failing New York Times will speak BADLY of it."

After singling out a writer for the paper, he continued to lambast the previous US administrations, and claimed that he was the only president to be criticised over Ukraine losing the Crimea territory, when "I've had nothing to do with this stupid war, other than early on I gave Ukraine Javelins, and Obama gave them sheets.

"This is Sleepy Joe Biden's war, not mine. It was a loser from day one, and should have never happened, and wouldn't have happened if I were President at the time."

In Moscow, President Putin issued a triumphant statement claiming Ukrainian forces had been removed from Russia's Kursk region where they have been fighting since a surprise incursion last summer. He boasted: "The complete defeat of our enemy along Kursk's border region creates the right conditions for further successes for our troops and in other important areas of the front."

Ukrainian officials said the fighting was still continuing. Ukraine's General staff said: "The statements of representatives of the high command of the aggressor country about the alleged end of hostilities in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation are not true."

In Rome at the Vatican before the funeral of Pope Francis, Ukraine's President Zelensky had earlier met with Donald Trump within St Peter's Basilica.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and France's Emmanuel Macron were also pictured alongside the American and Ukrainian presidents in images from the encounter.

The US president has claimed a deal is "very close" to being agreed and that Ukraine and Russia now need to meet at "a very high level" for talks.

The US has been pressing Ukraine to accept a peace deal which would require Kyiv to accept Russian control of vast swathes of occupied land.

Mr Zelensky has insisted he will not recognise Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the region occupied by Moscow's forces since 2014, nor continued Kremlin control in Ukraine's south and east.

He has called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to instead accept an unconditional end to the fighting.

Following the funeral ceremony's end, the Ukrainian leader said his face-to-face encounter with Mr Trump - their first since a tempestuous clash in the White House in February - had been a "good meeting".

In a post on social media site X, he said: "We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered.

"Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out.

"Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results."