On 18 February, US President Donald Trump once again claimed that Ukraine bears responsibility for Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. He stated that Kyiv could have made a deal to avoid the all-out war.
Trump criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had expressed concern that his country was not included in talks between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia on 18 February, NBC reports.
Regarding Russia’s invasion, the US President claimed:
“You should have never started it,” Trump said, referring to Ukraine.
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The American President stated,
“I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well,” he said, adding regarding Zelenskyy’s concerns: “But today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
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Trump claimed he could have secured better terms for Ukraine through negotiation:
“I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished, and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way.”
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Related:
- UK Defense Secretary Healey: decisions on Ukraine to shape global security for generations
- France calls second emergency summit on Ukraine amid concerns over Trump-Putin negotiations
- Zelenskyy: US, Russia share opposition to Ukraine’s NATO membership
- NATO chief: Europe ready to step up to lead Ukraine security guarantees
- Ceasefire without security guarantees will fail like Minsk agreements, Macron warns
- NBC News: Putin “thinks he’s winning” and seeks total control over Ukraine, say Western intelligence sources
- Trump’s mineral deal demands higher GDP share from Ukraine than Germany’s WWI reparations
- Zelenskyy: Ukraine rejected Russian ultimatums at war’s start and won’t accept them now