Former President Donald J. Trump blamed President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for Russia’s invasion of his country in a podcast interview released on Thursday, inverting the facts of the largest military action in Europe since the Second World War.

The war began when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia massed troops on the border and then invaded Ukraine, sending in troops and launching airstrikes on Feb. 24, 2022. Mr. Putin had long hoped to assert more control over the country, having already seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backed pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine’s east in a proxy war.

Mr. Trump, in a rambling, muddled answer on a conservative podcast, was criticizing President Biden’s leadership when he abruptly brought up his skepticism over the administration’s continued military aid to Ukraine.

“I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen,” Mr. Trump said, repeating a statement he has made frequently. “Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been. And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start. That war is a loser.”

Mr. Trump has suggested before that blame for the widespread destruction caused by the Russian invasion rests with the Ukrainian president. Mr. Zelensky, he has said, should have cut a deal with Mr. Putin to avoid the invasion.

“Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal,” Mr. Trump said at a rally last month in Mint Hill, N.C.