Vladimir Putin stated today that the war in Ukraine could have been prevented if Donald Trump was not deprived of the elections in 2020.
Putin described the large-scale invasion of their neighboring country by his forces in February 2022 as a 'crisis' and told the state media that the horrible bloodshed that Eastern Europe has plagued for almost three years would not have happened under Trump's presidency.
“I can only agree with him that if he had been president, if his victory had not been taken away from him in 2020, there might not have been the crisis in Ukraine that came into existence in 2022,” said the Russian president.
His comments were part of an extensive interview in which the chief of the Kremlin praised the newly inaugurated US president, called Trump “smart and pragmatically, and at the same time indicated the willingness to get over Ukraine at the negotiating table.
“He is not only a smart person, but also a pragmatic person,” Putin told the state media about his American counterpart.
'I can hardly imagine that decisions will be made that are harmful to the US economy.
“Regarding the issue of negotiations … We have always said, and I want to emphasize this again that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues.”
But Putin's statement lied to the comments that his own Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a few hours ago, in which he raged against the continuous delivery of Western weapons on the Ukrainian armed forces and against what the country called the 'illegal Kiev regime'.
(Files) Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and US President Donald Trump are depicted before a meeting in Helsinki
Russian President Vladimir Putin today described Trump as 'pragmatic and smart' in his commentary on the state media
President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, January 21, 2025, in Washington
“Despite the increasingly louder talk about the need for peace talks, an objectively no practical actions are observed that indicate a real willingness to do so on the part of Kiev and the West,” the statement said.
“The issue of the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government is not resolved.”
