Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, blamed the U.S. government and Ukrainian leadership for Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in a podcast released on October 17. The comments come just three weeks before the U.S. Presidential election, which could determine the future of Washington’s military support for Ukraine. Trump told Patrick Bet-David on his podcast that President Joe Biden had “instigated” the war. He said he “largely blames Biden” for the invasion. Trump also complained about President Volodymyr Zelensky and the amount Washington has provided Kyiv in military aid. “And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help them, because I feel very bad for those people.” “But (Zelensky), should never have allowed that war to start,” he said. “That war is a loser. “Trump claimed that if he was president in February 2022, Russia would not have launched a full-scale invasion. He said, “This should have been settled before the invasion began.” It would have been so simple. It would have been easy to settle if we had a half-brained president. Trump made similar remarks repeatedly during his election campaign, insisting that the war would never have happened under his watch but withholding concrete details about a plan for peace now. Trump blamed Zelensky, Biden and others for the war but did not mention Putin in the interview. This omission is especially glaring when you consider recent claims that Trump had secret phone conversations after leaving office in 2020. Trump has called the allegations made by journalist Bob Woodward, in his book “War”, “absolutely false.” Trump, despite these denials on Oct. 15, declined to confirm if he had spoken with Putin after leaving the White House. “If I did it, it was a smart move… He said that if he was friendly with people and had a relationship with them, it would be a good thing for a country. The U.S. launched a massive crackdown on Russian election interference in September, alleging the Kremlin was behind a propaganda campaign aimed at reducing support for Ukraine and influencing the November vote to favor Trump.
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