The former president of the United States of America (USA) and the Republican candidate for the presidency of the USA, Donald Trump, yesterday blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for helping to start Ukraine's war with Russia, Reuters reports.
The agency says the comment suggests Trump is likely to reduce US support for Ukraine if he wins the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The former US president frequently criticized Zelensky during the campaign, repeatedly calling him "the world's biggest salesman" for seeking and receiving billions of dollars in US military aid since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Zelensky, however, was not elected president until April 2019, more than five years after Russia seized the Crimean peninsula in its first invasion in 2014, while its proxy forces took over much of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
Russia's occupation of Crimea continued during Trump's presidency despite a series of US sanctions against Moscow.
Trump also criticized the Ukrainian leader for not seeking peace with Moscow, and suggested that Ukraine might have to cede part of its country to Russia in order to seal a peace deal, a concession Kiev finds unacceptable.
Trump's comments on Thursday's PBD podcast with Patrick Beth-David went a step further than his previous criticisms.
He said Zelensky was guilty not only of failing to end the war, but of helping to start it, even though the conflict erupted when Russia invaded Ukrainian territory.
"That doesn't mean I don't want to help him because I feel very bad for those people. But he should never have allowed that war to start," Trump said.
Zelensky presented Trump with his "victory plan" to end the war during a meeting in New York in September, a meeting both leaders described as cordial.
Trump's public comments, however, suggest he may try to cut aid to Ukraine if he defeats US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, on November 5, according to Reuters.
He has repeatedly said he could end the conflict before he takes office in January, but has not said how.
Harris has pledged to continue to support Ukraine, and she has portrayed Ukraine's victory as a vital US national security interest.
She has often chided Trump for his unwillingness to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 2019, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives – and later cleared by the Senate – for abuse of power stemming from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate current US President Joseph Biden.
Bonus video:
