President Donald Trump on Monday laid the blame for the Russia invasion of Ukraine on “Crooked Joe Biden” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, claiming Russia took advantage of Biden’s and Zelenskyy’s weakness.
“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!” he said. “I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS WAR, BUT AM WORKING DILIGENTLY TO GET THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION TO STOP.”
Trump reiterated his long-debunked claim that the 2020 election was “rigged,” alleging that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine had he defeated Biden.
“President Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin,” Trump said.
“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!”
Trump’s post came a day after Russian missiles fired in Ukraine killed more than 30 people, including two children, and wounded nearly 120 others.
Ukrainian officials have said two ballistic missiles on Palm Sunday morning hit the heart of Sumy, a city about less than 20 miles from Ukraine’s border with Russia, killing at least 34 and wounding 119. It was the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in Ukraine in just over a week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a global response to the attack, saying the first strike hit university buildings and the second exploded above street level. “Only real pressure on Russia can stop this. We need tangible sanctions against those sectors that finance the Russian killing machine,” he wrote Monday on social media.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.