According to the former US president, the current president’s lack of competence enabled the conflict.
Donald Trump, the former US President, has accused his successor, Joe Biden, of direct responsibility for the escalation of the Ukraine crisis into a full-blown conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump stated that had he won the 2020 election, the US would not be facing the Ukraine conflict or the Middle East crisis, and the withdrawal from Afghanistan would not have been so “embarrassing.”
Trump referred to the Russia-Ukraine conflict as “Biden’s war,” adding, “This is not my war. I’ve been here for a very short period of time… He gave them billions and billions of dollars. He should have never allowed – If he had any brain, which he didn’t have and doesn’t have… – that war to start.”
Trump continued, “I think frankly he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] had so little respect for Biden that he started it for that reason. And obviously, he didn’t get along very well with [Ukraine’s Vladimir] Zelensky or anybody else. And now you have millions of dead people, and those people – every one of them – should be alive right now.”
The US president reiterated that resolving the conflict is a top priority but acknowledged the difficulties, calling it “a deeply seated war.”
Under the Biden administration, the US has committed approximately $175 billion in aid to Ukraine, including advanced weapons, ammunition, and direct financial support. Biden has pledged to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” while consistently declining direct high-level talks with the Kremlin.
In contrast, Trump says he has resumed dialogue with Moscow since returning to office in January. According to Trump, Russian and US delegations have held several rounds of high-level discussions recently to resolve the Ukraine conflict and restore relations between the two countries.
Russia has reportedly welcomed the renewed contact and described it as productive. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has cautioned that resolving long-standing issues in US-Russia relations will take time.
Peskov stated on Sunday, “We are now walking down this road together, very patiently. We have many more steps to take, but one just needs to understand how serious the damage is that was done to bilateral Russia-US relations under the previous administration. Painstaking work is now being done to eliminate these consequences.”