Ukraine conflict is ‘Biden’s war’ – Trump

Former US President Joe Biden is directly responsible for allowing the Ukraine crisis to escalate into hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, his successor Donald Trump has said.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump argued that if he had won the 2020 election, the US would not be dealing with the Ukraine conflict and the Middle East crisis, and would have avoided an “embarrassing” withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Trump described the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as “Biden’s war.” “This is not my war. I’ve been here for a very short period of time... He gave them billions and billions of dollars. He should have never allowed – If he had any brain, which he didn’t have and doesn’t have… – that war to start.”

“I think frankly he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] had so little respect for Biden that he started it for that reason. And obviously, he didn't get along very well with [Ukraine’s Vladimir] Zelensky or anybody else. And now you have millions of dead people, and those people – every one of them – should be alive right now,” Trump added.

The US president reiterated that settling the conflict remains a top priority but acknowledged the challenges involved, describing it as “a deeply seated war.”

The US committed around $175 billion in aid to Ukraine under the Biden administration, including advanced weapons systems, ammunition, and direct financial assistance. Biden pledged to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” while consistently refusing to engage in direct top-level talks with the Kremlin.

In contrast, Trump has resumed dialogue with Moscow since returning to office in January. Russian and US delegations have held several rounds of high-level talks in recent months on settling the Ukraine conflict and restoring bilateral relations.

While Russia has welcomed the renewed contact and described the engagement as productive, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned that resolving long-standing issues in US-Russia relations will take time.

“We are now walking down this road together, very patiently. We have many more steps to take, but one just needs to understand how serious the damage is that was done to bilateral Russia-US relations under the previous administration,” Peskov said on Sunday. “Painstaking work is now being done to eliminate these consequences.”