President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that Ukraine was responsible for Russia’s invasion of the country three years ago, arguing Kyiv could have made a deal to avoid the conflict.
“You should have never started it,” Trump said of Ukraine while criticizing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had expressed concern that his country was not included in talks between the U.S. and Russia in Saudi Arabia.
“I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well. But today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Trump went on to say: “I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished, and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way.”
Nonsense. It’s these sort of blanket statements that undermine a clear understanding of what each side wants. Putin wanted Ukraine to remain neutral and not join NATO, because the head of NATO, the United States was talking about unprovoked nuclear first strikes and all sorts of crazy things. Zelensky himself publicly floated the idea of Ukraine obtaining nukes. If your choice is between going to war and having a country on your border point nukes at you, then you might go to war.
In fact. The United States claimed Iraq (a country far away from itself) was trying to obtain nukes and invaded it in the 2000s, and that was while the leaders of Iraq were refuting the claim (and the Iraqis were telling the truth).
Right. And all the talks about reforming the USSR are probably just a diversion.
That’s what the United States and NATO countries claim Putin wants, and which he has refuted. That makes reforming the USSR about as believable as Iraqi nukes.
If you want to win me over and have me believe you, then my advice would be to go to Iraq and don’t come back until you find those nukes. My advice is that when you go, remember to avoid packing light, because you’re gonna be there a while.