Donald Trump has blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for “allowing” the war with Russia to begin in a fresh swipe at the Ukrainian president.
Mr Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart and Joe Biden, the former US president, “did an absolutely horrible job” of preventing the conflict between Kyiv and Moscow and called for an end to the war “fast”.
The US president told his followers on Truth Social: “President Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin. There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to STOP, AND FAST.”
His comments come a month after the two leaders clashed in a televised shouting match in the Oval Office.
The extraordinary row left the prospects of a peace deal hanging by a thread after Mr Trump told Mr Zelensky to “come back when you’re ready for peace” and threatened to withdraw US military aid unless Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire.
Relations have since improved, but overnight Mr Trump appeared to defend Vladimir Putin for a Russian missile strike on the city of Sumy, which killed 34 people and injured 100 more, saying he believed it was a “mistake”.
Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin was “not an angel” for the part he has played in Russia’s war with Ukraine but stressed the invasion would never have happened under his leadership.
He told reporters in the Oval Office: “You take a look at Putin. I’m not saying anybody’s an angel. But I will tell you I went four years and it wasn’t even a question, he would never – and I told him, don’t do it, you’re not going to do it.
And it [Ukraine] was the apple of his eye but there was no way that he would have done it.”
He continued: “That’s a war that should never have been allowed to start. Biden could have stopped it and Zelensky could have stopped it and Putin should never have started it. Everybody’s to blame.”
Donald Trump has questioned Volodymyr Zelensky’s competency, suggesting Ukraine started a war against Russia “that’s 20 times” its size.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he said: “The mistake was letting the war happen, if Biden were competent, and if Zelensky were competent, and I don’t know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy [Zelensky].
“He just kept asking for more and more that war should have never been allowed to happen. That war, I went four years and Putin wouldn’t even bring it up. And as soon as the election was rigged, and I wasn’t here, that war started. There was no way that war should have been allowed to happen, and Biden should have stopped it.”
Asked if he spoke to the Ukrainian about his offer to purchase more Patriot missiles, he added: “Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right? You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
Ukraine has reportedly invited EU officials to visit Kyiv on May 9, the same day as Russia’s annual Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said the gesture is intended to “show unity and resolve in the face of the biggest aggression in Europe”, according to Politico.
Russia’s May 9 display marks the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 and is often a show of the country’s military might, with large-scale armed forces parades and veterans turning out in force.
On the battlefront, Russian attacks on the Kharkiv region of east Ukraine killed four residents on Monday, local officials said.
Moscow’s forces have gained ground in the Kharkiv region, home to Ukraine’s second largest city, which was also targeted in overnight Russian drone attacks.
The head of the region said Russian forces had shelled the town of Kupiansk, a rail hub that was captured by Russian forces in 2022 and then liberated.
Governor Oleg Synegubov said: “A 68-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman died as a result of artillery shelling,”
He added in a social media post that a 77-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man were also killed by Russian rockets.
Vladimir Putin was “mocking” Donald Trump’s attempt to broker peace in Ukraine with a ballistic missile strike that killed dozens of people in Sumy on Palm Sunday, EU foreign ministers said.
Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, said at a meeting of his European counterparts in Luxembourg: “I hope that President Trump, the US administration, sees that the leader of Russia is mocking their goodwill, and I hope the right decisions are taken.”
Kestutis Budrys, Lithuania’s foreign minister, told reporters: “This is once again a humiliation to everyone who puts in diplomatic efforts to stop this war and achieve at least a ceasefire for negotiations to begin.”
Latvia’s foreign minister rejected Mr Trump’s suggestion that Russia had made a “mistake” when it hit the northeastern Ukrainian city, killing 34 and injuring 100 more.
“The Russians knew what they were doing,” Baiba Braze said. “There is no way they can say this was just a mistake.”
Posting on his Truth Social account, Donald Trump, the US president, said: “The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening.
“President Putin, and everyone else, respected your President! I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS WAR, BUT AM WORKING DILIGENTLY TO GET THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION TO STOP.
“If the 2020 Presidential Election was not RIGGED, and it was, in so many ways, that horrible War would never have happened. President Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin.
“There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to STOP, AND FAST. SO SAD!
An eyewitness to the Palm Sunday strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy described the moment two Iskander-M missiles struck.
“A lot of people were very badly injured. A lot of corpses,” she said, struggling to speak.
Some 34 people were killed in the attack, including two children, according to Ukraine’s emergency services.
People reportedly ran for cover amid burning cars and the wreckage of a trolleybus.
The dead were covered in silver sheets as rescuers worked through the rubble in search of survivors.
The Kremlin has warned Germany against supplying Taurus missiles to Ukraine, claiming incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz’s proposal risked escalating the three-year conflict.
The air-launched missile, jointly developed by Germany and Sweden, can reach targets up to 500 kilometres (311 miles) away.
Olaf Scholz, the outgoing chancellor, had ruled out sending them to Kyiv, but Mr Merz said on Sunday that he was open to the idea provided Germany was in agreement with its European partners.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said of Merz: “He is agitating on the side of toughening his position and in favour of various steps that can – and will – inevitably lead to a further escalation of the Ukraine situation.”
He added: “Unfortunately, European capitals are really not inclined to look for ways of reaching peace talks, they are rather inclined to further provoke the continuation of the war.”
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump blames Zelensky for war – The Telegraph
