DONALD Trump has blasted Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky for “allowing” Russia’s invasion.
The American President also blasted Russia’s Vladimir Putin – as well as his own predecessor in the White House Joe Biden – calling them “number one” and “number two” to blame.
Donald Trump says the war should never have been allowed to happen’
ReutersTrump took aim at Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky[/caption]
EPAUkrainian rescuers work at the scene of a Russian drone strike in Kharkiv[/caption]
It comes as Putin’s forces intensify attacks on Ukraine, with a Russian missile strike killing 35 people and injuring more than 100 more in the city of Sumy on Sunday.
But Trump insisted on loading blame for the “millions of people dead” on Zelensky as well as Putin.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the war so far according to analysts, not millions.
Trump told reporters: “You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
The civilian death toll in Ukraine has continued to climb amid savage Russian attacks, with many observers saying Putin is clearly not interested in peace.
Ukraine says the strike in Sumy hit residential buildings in the city, which Germany’s soon-to-be Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called a “serious war crime”.
However, Donald Trump has only described the appalling attack as a “mistake”.
He accused three people of being to blame for all the death and destruction since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
“Everybody is to blame,” he said on Monday.
Trump also suggested that Biden and Zelensky were incompetent, saying “the war should never have been allowed to happen.”
“Biden could have stopped it, and Zelensky could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it,” Trump added.
On the campaign trail last year, Trump repeatedly promised to resolve the Ukraine war within 24 hours, but no peace deal has been reached yet.
Trump has also claimed the invasion would never have happened if he had been president in 2022.
However, Russia had begun interfering in Ukraine long before Trump was first elected to the White House – most notably in illegally seizing the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
“When you start a war, you got to know you can win,” Trump added.
When asked whether he had spoken to Zelensky about his offer to buy more missiles from America, Trump appeared dismissive.
“Oh I don’t know. He’s always looking to buy more missiles,” Trump said.
The US has been a key supplier of arms to Ukraine since Putin launched his monstrous invasion.
But Western allies feared that Trump might turn off the tap ahead of his election victory last year.
GettyRescuers extinguish a fire after a Russian strike on a food warehouse in Kharkiv[/caption]
APDonald Trump and JD Vance at the White House[/caption]
AFPVladimir Putin chairs a meeting on the Navy development in Saint Petersburg[/caption]
Relations between Trump and Zelensky have soured since a fiery row in the Oval Office back in February, for which the American president was widely criticised by Western allies.
Meanwhile, Trump has sought to renew American ties with Russia, having spoken on the phone to Putin last month.
But the American president was reported to be “very angry” with Putin late last month as Washington pushed for a ceasefire between the two countries.
He previously threatened to slap a 50% tariff on countries that buy Russian oil if Putin does not agree to halt the fighting.
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, said the Russian missile attack on Sumy attack “crosses any line of decency”.
Zelensky has asked Trump to visit Ukraine ahead of any peace deal reached with Russia.
The Ukrainian president told CBS: “Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead.”
Zelensky has been President of Ukraine since 2019 and shot to global fame for his heroic stand against Russia following Putin’s brutal invasion.
He has indicated he is willing to resign if it means peace of NATO membership for his country.
APTrump also blamed Biden for the Ukraine war[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
