Donald Trump has again blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war with Russia – a day after a major Russian attack killed 35 people and injured 117 others in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
The US president said Ukraine’s leader shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the “millions of people dead” in the conflict.
“You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,” he said at the White House on Monday.
His comments followed Russia’s strike on Sumy on Sunday – the deadliest attack on civilians this year. Moscow also hit the city’s outskirts on Monday night.
Trump on Monday had first described the attack as “terrible” but said he had been told Russia had “made a mistake”. He did not give further detail.
Moscow said it had targeted a meeting of Ukrainian soldiers, killing 60 of them, but did not provide any evidence.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media reported that there had been a medal ceremony for military veterans in the city on the day of the attack. Zelensky sacked Sumy’s regional chief on Tuesday, for allegedly hosting the event, local media reported.
Trump on Monday also blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for the war’s casualties- which are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, not the millions he’s claimed.
“Millions of people dead because of three people,” Trump had said. “Let’s say Putin number one, let’s say Biden who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky.”
Questioning Zelensky’s competence, he said the Ukrainian leader was “always looking to purchase missiles”.
“When you start a war, you got to know you can win,” the US president said.
Trump has repeatedly blamed Zelensky and Biden for the war, despite Russia invading Ukraine first in 2014, five years before Zelensky won the presidency, and then launching a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump further argued on Monday that “Biden could have stopped it and Zelensky could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it. Everybody is to blame”.
Tensions between Trump and Zelensky have been high since a heated confrontation at the White House in February, where the US leader chided Ukraine’s president for not starting peace talks with Russia earlier.
By contrast, Trump has taken action to drastically improve relations with Moscow.
Trump’s administration has sought to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine and has held negotiations with Moscow that have cut out Kyiv.
Trump said he had a “great” phone call with Putin last month, and the Russian president sent him a portrait as a gift a week later.
Credit: bbc.com
The post Trump blames Zelensky for starting war after massive Russian attack appeared first on The Ghanaian Chronicle.
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