Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday during a joint press conference with President Donald Trump in Alaska that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could have been avoided if Trump had been in office.

After negotiations between the leaders on Friday in Anchorage, Alaska, the two spoke with reporters about their potential peace deal. During his remarks, Putin noted that he had attempted to warn former President Joe Biden in 2022 that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia “should not be brought to the point of no return.”

“In the end, I would like to add one more thing. I would like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities,” Putin said. “I said it quite directly back then, that it’s a big mistake.”

“Today, when President Trump is saying that if he was the President back then, there would be no war, and I’m quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that. I think that overall, me and President Trump have built a very good business-like and trustworthy contact, and I have every reason to believe that moving down this path, we can come at the summit back to the end of the conflict in Ukraine.”

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