Trump blames Ukraine for Russia’s invasion, calls Zelenskyy a ‘great salesman’

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meet at Trump Tower in New York. File-Reuters

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate has sparked controversy by blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion. In a recent podcast interview, Trump claimed that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy failed to prevent the conflict, drawing swift backlash from critics who labelled him a “traitor” and an “idiot.”

Trump quickly shifted focus to criticising President Joe Biden, alleging that he was responsible for instigating the Ukraine war. This development comes as Trump vies for the White House against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. The Trump-Ukraine scandal has been a point of contention since 2019, involving Trump’s attempts to coerce Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden.

“Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen. Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been (anyone),” Trump told the two-million-subscriber PBD Podcast.

“And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. He should never have let that war start.”

The Trump campaign told AFP the Republican was “clearly talking about Biden” and not Zelensky when he made his remarks about culpability for the war.

Ukraine communicates little about losses for fear of demoralising its citizens after more than two years of Russia’s invasion, but the Wall Street Journal reported last month that the war had killed or wounded a million soldiers on both sides.

The United States is one of Ukraine’s main backers, and has disbursed more than $64.1 billion in military assistance to Zelensky’s government since the start of the war.

Although Kyiv is a US ally and Moscow is considered an adversary, Trump touted his good relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin during a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky in September.

Trump was impeached for withholding vital weaponry from Ukraine after Russia’s smaller-scale 2014 invasion, as he pushed its government unsuccessfully into announcing investigations into Biden, who was then his election rival.

A federal investigation identified numerous links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, which was found to have interfered in the 2016 US election on the Republican’s behalf.

Criticism over Trump’s apparent closeness to Putin was turbocharged last week by allegations that, while president, he sent the Russian leader Covid tests despite a US shortage and that the Republican and Putin may have been in contact numerous times since 2021.

“What a despicable Traitor,” the Republicans Against Trump lobby group posted on X, alongside footage of Trump’s podcast remarks.

“He’s an idiot, and the whole world wonders why so many Americans don’t see it,” added national security analyst John Sipher, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

With inputs from agencies.