ONE of Vladimir Putin’s top lackeys has blasted Donald Trump’s Ukraine ceasefire deadline as a “threat and a step towards war”.

Dmitry Medvedev, one of the Russian tyrant’s closest allies, even compared Trump to “Sleepy Joe” Biden in his incendiary remarks.

It comes after Trump slashed his 50 day deadline for a peace deal down to “10 to 12” days – bringing it forward to the end of next week.

The US president has grown increasingly frustrated at the Russian tyrant’s unwillingness to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Trump said: “I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him.

“So we’re going to have to look and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number.”

Trump had promised during his election campaign last year to bring the war to end within 24 hours of assuming office.

The White House has threatened bruising sanctions against Moscow if Vlad fails to comply with Trump’s demands.

“There’s no reason in waiting, we just don’t see any progress being made,” Trump said.

Trump has also floated the prospect of secondary sanctions that would affect those who buy oil from Moscow.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry retorted that the “language of ultimatums, blackmail, and threats” is unacceptable to the Kremlin.

But ex-Russian President Medvedev has now taken to social media to further furiously attack Trump’s ultimatum.

He warned Trump he should remember “two things” when putting down such demands and deadlines against Russia.

The Putin confidante started by saying “Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran”.

But in a chilling warning, he added: “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war.

“Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!”

His “Sleepy Joe” remark is a reference to Trump’s famous insult against former President Joe Biden – who rallied the West’s initial response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, previously said Moscow should consider bombing the West – and claimed NATO is effectively at war with Russia.

In a deranged rant, he said: “We need to act accordingly. To respond in full. And if necessary, launch preemptive strikes.”

Despite Trump’s pushes for a ceasefire, Russia’s brutal attacks on Ukraine have only intensified in recent weeks.

In one heinous attack, Russian barrages hit a maternity hospital in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Head of the Ukrainian president’s office Andriy Yermak said: “The Putin regime, which through certain individuals also threatens the USA, must face economic and military strikes that will deprive it of the ability to wage war.”

And over the past 24 hours alone, seven civilians were killed and 21 injured in Russian strikes across the war-ravaged country, the Kyiv Independent has reported.

Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War has warned that Putin uses this sense of conflict with the West to stir up support for the invasion at home.

“Kremlin officials continue to frame Russia as in direct geopolitical confrontation with the West in order to generate domestic support for the war in Ukraine and future Russian aggression against NATO,” the think tank said.