Donald Trump was so impressed by Ukraine’s audacious drone raids on Russian warplanes that he described them as “badass” to aides.
Mr Trump has kept unusually quiet about the Sunday attack on airfields deep inside Russia as he tries to keep both sides talking to each other.
But a report published on Thursday revealed he thought the strikes were “strong” even as he worried that it would make peace efforts more complicated.
“He thought it was badass,” a source told Axios.
An adviser said: “From an international perspective, you’ve got a chihuahua inflicting some real damage on a much bigger dog.”
Kyiv’s weekend strikes on airfields destroyed and damaged nuclear-capable aircraft and infuriated Moscow.
“Operation Spider’s Web” was reportedly 18 months in the planning.
But it leaves