The President of the United States, Donald Trump, reignited the controversy on Monday by once again holding his predecessor, Joe Biden, and the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelenski, responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to Trump, the conflict would never have happened if the 2020 U.S. presidential elections had not been "rigged."
"The war between Russia and Ukraine is Biden's war, not mine. I just arrived, and during my four years in office, I had no problems preventing it from happening. President Putin, and everyone else, respected their president!" Trump said in a post on his network Truth Social.
Despite his repeated campaign promises that he would be able to end the war initiated by Putin in 24 hours once in power, on Monday the leader once again dismissed his responsibility in a conflict that began with the invasion of Crimea in 2014 – along with the subsequent low-intensity war promoted by Putin in the Donbas region – and claimed to be “working tirelessly to stop the death and destruction.”
"If the 2020 presidential elections had not been MANIPULATED —and they were, in many ways— that horrible war would never have happened. President Zelenski and the corrupt Joe Biden did an absolutely terrible job of allowing this tragedy to begin. There were many ways to prevent it from starting," said the Republican who, during his first term, did nothing to intervene and allowed Russia to escalate the conflict and prepare for its large-scale invasion in February 2022.
These statements come in the wake of the Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy during Palm Sunday, which left at least 34 dead and over 100 injured.
In statements to the press from Air Force One, Trump described the attack as a "mistake," without directly condemning Russia or Putin. This stance has drawn criticism, including from President Zelensky, who invited Trump to visit Ukraine to witness the devastation caused by the war.
This Monday, during the official reception at the White House for the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, the U.S. President insisted on his accusation against Zelensky of having "started the war", a falsehood that experts attribute to the Kremlin's disinformation campaigns that have resonated within the current administration.
"Zelensky is always looking to buy missiles. Listen, when you start a war, you must know that you can win it. You don't start a war against someone twenty times bigger and then expect people to give you missiles," Trump said.
Zelensky responded to Trump's statements by indicating that the American president "lives in a bubble of misinformation." The tension between the two leaders has heightened, especially after Trump excluded Ukraine from the peace talks between the United States and Russia held in Riyadh, and labeled the Ukrainian leader a "dictator without elections."
The international community has condemned the attack in Sumy, describing it as a war crime. European leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, have called for harsher sanctions against Russia and for strengthening support for Ukraine.
While Trump continues to promote his narrative that the war is a consequence of the decisions made by Biden and Zelensky, the situation in Ukraine remains critical, with the civilian population suffering the consequences of Russian attacks and the lack of an immediate resolution to the conflict.
Filed under: