Trump blames Biden and Zelensky for war in Ukraine
Trump has accused his predecessor Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of responsibility for the war in Ukraine.
Trump criticised Zelensky for wanting US missiles.
“Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right? You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size. And then hope that people give you some missiles,” he said on Monday (US time).
Trump had earlier expressed a different view during a reception for Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at the White House, acknowledging that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not without fault.
He said Zelensky, Biden and Putin all shared blame for the conflict.
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“Everybody’s is to blame,” Trump said.
Trump’s focus was primarily on Zelensky, whom he had met at the White House in February, where he and Vice President JD Vance publicly reprimanded him.
“We had a rough session with this guy over here. He just kept asking for more and more,” Trump said on Monday.
Ahead of that inflammatory meeting, Trump had already accused Zelensky and Biden on the Truth Social platform of failing to prevent the war in Ukraine.
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“President Zelensky and the corrupt Joe Biden did an absolutely terrible job in allowing this farce to begin,” he wrote.
Putin first annexed the Ukraine region of Crimea in 2014 and then ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump is advocating for an end to the war and maintains close contact with the Kremlin through his special envoy Steve Witkoff.
His administration envisions a deal to end the war that aligns with Moscow’s interests, suggesting that Ukraine should abandon its pursuit of NATO membership and that US soldiers should not be part of a potential peacekeeping force.
Zelensky recently said the Russian perspective on the war had strongly influenced the US government.
Earlier in the day, he implored Trump to visit Ukraine and see some of the tragedy of the current war before committing to any purported peace solutions with Russia.
Mindful of his abrasive meeting with the US leader in Washington in February, Zelensky reiterated his respect for the US position.
“But please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” he told US broadcaster CBS in an interview released on Sunday.
He hoped that Trump would then understand what he was dealing with, he said.
“You will understand what Putin did,” he said.
CBS recorded the interview with Zelensky during a visit to his home city of Kryvyi Rih. A Russian missile attack there on April 4 killed 19 people, including nine children and teenagers.
