Trump blames Ukraine for Russia invasion: ‘These are the Kremlin’s talking points’
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In a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago home, Donald Trump has said Ukraine is to blame for Russia’s invasion, and that it shouldn’t be represented at peace talks with Vladimir Putin.
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Read time: 4 mins
In brief…
- Trump has said Volodomyr Zelensky has had three years to end the conflict with Russia, which is why he won’t be involved in upcoming peace talks.
- The News Agents say he is repeating Russian propaganda, and in backing Putin’s calls for an election in Ukraine, is helping the Russia leader achieve his goals.
- Trump and Putin are establishing a relationship closer than ever before in recent history, but how long can Western leaders allow the US president to go unchallenged?
What’s the story?
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but according to Donald Trump, the Ukrainians started it.
The US president has blamed Ukraine, and its president, Volodomyr Zelensky, for the conflict with its superpower neighbour, speaking at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home.
He responded to criticism that Zelensky would not be involved in talks between Trump and Vladimir Putin to bring the conflict to an end. The two leaders are expected to meet in Saudi Arabia within the next month.
“Well, you’ve been there for three years, you should have ended it in three years," Trump said.
"You should have never started it, you could have made a deal."
Trump also called for an election in Ukraine, claiming Zelensky was no longer popular with the people of Ukraine.
Zelensky has fired back at Trump, saying he is “trapped in a disinformation bubble”, and that Russia is the "guilty party" in the ongoing conflict.
The US president has previously said Ukraine must be prepared to give up some of its land to Russia in order to end the conflict.
Lewis Goodall describes Trump's comments as "completely unrecognisable to any other American president, or indeed anybody grounded in any form of reality at all."
"He is buying into a narrative, a conception of this war which is false, which is wrong, which simply did not exist," he says.
"He is basically suggesting that Ukraine is responsible for this war, which legitimises Putin's war in the first place."
Jon Sopel says his words were "the Kremlin's talking points".
When will the West stand up to Trump on Ukraine?
How is Trump helping Putin reach his goals?
Putin has long argued that Russia has a "sphere of influence" in Eastern Europe, one he believes was stolen from it when the Soviet Union began its break-up in 1989.
Ukraine is among the countries which were formerly part of the Soviet Union, and which chose to join NATO instead of remaining under control of the USSR.
"What Putin actually said he wanted was to have a government in Ukraine of his choosing, because he said that the Ukrainian government, the Zelensky government, was a Western stooge government," says Lewis.
"Trump is going along with this, suggesting that any peace deal would be incumbent upon there being fresh elections in Ukraine.
"Well, first of all, how about we have a free and fair election in Russia? Irony is dead when Vladimir Putin is telling other countries how to have elections."
There were claims of vote rigging in 2024 when Putin won 88% of the vote in a general election in Russia.
Lewis adds that if there was an election in Ukraine, and Putin didn't like the outcome, he could use this to restart military action against the country.
"Here you have an American president basically turning to a Russian leader and saying: ‘You're right. You do have a sphere of influence. You basically have the right to tell these countries how to live’," adds Lewis.
"This war would never have started if these countries, if Ukraine, had just accepted Russian domination to begin with.
“It is mind boggling."
What's The News Agents' take?
Lewis says what Trump is doing is moving closer to Russia than it ever has before.
"What we're seeing is something else, we're seeing what feels like the emergence of a US/Russia axis," he says.
"Even during the war, there was a marriage of convenience between the Soviet Union and the United States.
"For Europe, the implications of that are staggering."
Jon does not believe that Trump aligning so closely with Putin reflects the feelings of the US population.
"I think that an awful lot of Americans do not think of Russia as their friends," he says.
"There's a lot of reason to believe that they're actually very sympathetic with Ukraine.
"They believe that one country was invaded by an aggressive force. Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine, the victim.
For now, there has been no pushback on Trump's words from Western leaders, with Jon saying that even Zelensky may come to regret criticising the US president by making him even more of an enemy.
But, he believes, this international silence – including from the UK – cannot last.
"We have seen the UK trying, understandably, not to upset any apple carts," Jon adds.
"But there comes a point, surely, where the West has to say, this isn't accurate. This isn't right. What you are saying isn't historically truthful.
"There is going to come a moment where the West is going to have to say to Donald Trump, sorry, you're just spouting what Putin thinks, and we can't allow this to happen."
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