The Republican candidate for the White House, Donald Trumpthis Thursday the 17th blamed Ukraine, an ally of the United States, for the invasion of Russia, arguing that the president Volodimir Zelensky had failed in its duty to stop hostilities before they began.
The comments, made in an interview on a Republican-friendly podcast, sparked an immediate backlash, with critics accusing the 78-year-old former Republican president of being a “traitor” and “idiot.”
“Zelensky is one of the best salespeople I’ve ever seen. Every time he comes, we give him 100 billion dollars. Who else has made this amount of money in history? There never was (anyone),” Trump said on the PBD podcast, which has two million subscribers.
“And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel really bad for these people. This war should never have been allowed to start,” he added.
Trump, who faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 elections, immediately began criticizing President Joe Biden, accusing him of having “instigated” the war in Ukraine.
The Trump campaign told AFP that the Republican was “clearly talking about Biden,” and not Zelensky, when he made his comments about war culpability.
“What a despicable traitor,” the pressure group Republicans against Trump posted on the social network X, along with images of his statements on the podcast.
“It’s stupid, and the whole world wonders why so many Americans can’t see it,” added national security analyst John Sipher, principal fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
Ukraine reports little about its losses for fear of affecting its citizens’ morale after more than two years of Russian invasion, but the Wall Street Journal reported last month that the conflict had killed or injured a million soldiers on both sides. .
The United States is one of Ukraine’s main supporters and has already disbursed more than 64.1 billion dollars (R$363.8 billion at current prices) in military assistance to Zelensky’s government since the start of the war.
Although Kiev is an ally of the United States and Moscow is considered an adversary, Trump echoed his good relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin during a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky in September.
