Trump said Ukraine should have made concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the final months before a full-scale invasion begins in February 2022, and said even “the worst deal would be better than what we have now.”
Trump, a long-time critic of U.S. aid to Ukraine, has often said that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he were president and that he would end the war if he returned to the White House.
Trump’s comments about Ukraine in what he said was a speech at an event in North Carolina followed a debate earlier this month in which he pointedly refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war.
Trump began disparaging Ukraine on Wednesday in response to its President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent criticism of Trump and vice presidential candidate James David Vance.
Zelensky, who is visiting the United States this week for the UN General Assembly, told The New Yorker that Vance was “too radical” in suggesting that Ukraine give up Russian-occupied territories and that Trump “really doesn’t know how to stop the war, even if he thought he knew it”.
“There’s something we need to discuss quickly because the president of Ukraine is in our country making nasty slurs about your favorite president, me,” Trump said.
He described Ukraine as a country in ruins outside the capital Kyiv, lacking soldiers and losing population to war and emigration. He doubted that Ukraine had any trump cards left to negotiate an end to the war.
“Any deal – the worst deal – would be better than what we have now,” Trump said. “If they make a bad deal, it would be much better. (..) What kind of deal can we make? It (Ukraine) is ruined. People are dead. The country is in ruins.”‘
Trump blamed US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamal Harris for the conflict, saying Biden “incited” Ukraine by promising to help it instead of pushing to give territory to Russia.
“Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelensky money and ammunition,” Trump said.
Referring to Putin, Trump said “he is no angel” but did not blame him for the invasion of Ukraine and claimed that Putin would not have started the war if Trump had been president.
2024-09-26 18:16:08