Republican
presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as
he participates in a town hall presented by Spanish-language network
Univision, in Doral, Florida, U.S., October 16, 2024. REUTERS/Marco
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Trump blames Ukraine's Zelenskiy for starting war with Russia
WASHINGTON,
Oct 17 (Reuters) - Donald Trump on Thursday blamed Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy for helping start that nation's war with Russia, a
comment that further suggests Trump is likely to decrease U.S. support
for Ukraine if he wins the Nov. 5 election.
The Republican former president
has frequently criticized Zelenskiy on the campaign trail, repeatedly
calling him "the greatest salesman on Earth" for having solicited and
received billions of dollars of U.S. military aid since Russia's
full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
Zelenskiy,
however, was not elected until April 2019, more than five years after
Russia seized Crimea in its initial 2014 invasion, while its proxy
forces took over a large part of eastern Ukraine's Donbas region.
Russia's occupation of Crimea continued throughout Trump's presidency despite a series of U.S. sanctions on Moscow.
Trump has also slammed the Ukrainian leader for failing to seek peace with Moscow, and he has suggested Ukraine may have to cede some of its land to Russia to make a peace deal, a concession Kyiv considers unacceptable.
Trump's
comments on the PBD Podcast on Thursday with Patrick Bet-David went a
step further than his previous criticism. He said Zelenskiy was to blame
not just for failing to end the war, but for helping start it, even
though the conflict broke out when Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign
territory.
"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. The war's a
loser," Trump said.
Zelenskiy presented his "victory plan" to end the war to Trump during a meeting in New York in September, an encounter both leaders described as cordial.
Trump's public comments, however, suggest he could seek to wind down aid for Ukraine if he defeats Vice President Kamala Harris,
the Democratic nominee, on Nov. 5. He has repeatedly said he could end
the conflict before he takes office in January, but he has not said how.
Harris
has pledged to continue supporting Ukraine, and she has portrayed a
victory for the eastern European nation as a vital U.S. national
security interest. She has frequently rebuked Trump for being unwilling
to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump was impeached in 2019
by the House of Representatives - and later acquitted by the Senate -
for abuse of power stemming from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to
investigate Joe Biden.
Reporting by Gram Slattery; editing by Ross Colvin, Jonathan Oatis and Philippa Fletcher