“The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, and everyone else, respected your President!”
Trump also blamed President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for “allowing this travesty to begin.”
“There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to STOP, AND FAST,” Trump wrote.
In comments to reporters in the Oval Office late Monday morning, Trump added Putin to the list of those he views at fault.
“Biden could have stopped it, and Zelensky could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it,” Trump told reporters. “Everybody’s to blame.”
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after massing troops on the border.
Trump’s post on Truth Social came after Zelensky appeared on “60 Minutes” Sunday night. Zelensky pushed back on some of the Trump administration’s assertions about the conflict, and he urged Trump to come visit war-torn Ukraine before making any final decisions.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump made repeated lofty promises to end the war in Ukraine quickly. During a debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said he would get the war settled “before I even become president.”
But it has proven more difficult than Trump expected to bring the fighting to a stop. He has met with Zelensky and spoken with Putin. Trump’s envoy for Middle East affairs, Steve Witkoff, met in person with Putin in recent days.
Amid the peace brokering, two Russian missiles hit the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday amid Palm Sunday celebrations, killing at least 34 people and injuring more than 100, according to multiple reports.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
