WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Donald Trump on Thursday blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for helping start that nation’s war with Russia. This comment further suggests Trump is likely to decrease U.S. support for Ukraine if he wins the Nov. 5 election.
The Republican former president repeatedly attacked Zelenskiy on the campaign trail, branding him “the greatest salesman on Earth” for soliciting and accepting billions of dollars of U.S. military aid since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
Zelenskiy was not elected until April 2019, more than five years after Russia seized Crimea in its initial 2014 invasion, while its proxy forces took over a large part of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Under Trump, the takeover and occupation of Crimea continued, alongside a succession of U.S. sanctions on Moscow.
Trump has also ridiculed the Ukrainian leader for not trying to reach an agreement with Moscow, and he has even suggested that Ukraine may have to cede parts of its territory to Russia if it wants a peace settlement non-starter in Kyiv.
Trump’s criticism during the PBD Podcast on Thursday with Patrick Bet-David was much more strident than previously.
He said Zelenskiy was responsible not merely for not stopping the war but also for his part in bringing about the war, which is ridiculous because the war began when Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start. The war’s a loser,” Trump said.
