Donald Trump on Thursday blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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 Zelensky 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.
Zelensky, 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.
