Mr Trump continued to accuse Ukrainian President Zelensky of “starting the war” and being responsible for the war that has left “millions” dead.
“He’s always looking to buy missiles,” US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on April 14 about his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky’s efforts to maintain his country’s defenses before the conflict with Russia broke out.
“When you start a war, you have to know whether you can win it or not. You can’t start a war against someone 20 times bigger than you and then expect people to give you missiles,” Mr. Trump added.
Mr Trump also stressed that this was a war that should never have started. “Biden should have stopped it, Zelensky should have stopped it. Putin should not have started it.”
The White House chief said the Ukrainian leadership shared responsibility for the conflict with the Russian president and former US president Biden. “You saw millions of people die. They died because of three people. If you say Putin first, then Biden, who doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing, and Zelensky second. And all I could do was try to stop it,” Trump said.
US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on April 14. Photo: AFP
Mr Trump’s comments came a day after Mr Zelensky’s interview with CBS News on April 13. The Ukrainian leader suggested that the Trump administration was operating under an “altered reality” about the origins of the conflict.
“I don’t want to participate in the changed reality that is being presented to me. First of all, we are not the ones who initiated the attack,” Mr Zelensky said, adding that “Russia is the aggressor and we are the victims”.
This is not the first time Mr. Trump has criticized Ukraine for starting the conflict. During a press conference on February 18 about the results of US-Russia negotiations in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump said “you should have ended the war after three years, and you should have never started it.”
In a social media post on February 19, Mr. Trump even called Mr. Zelensky an “unelected dictator.” Tensions between the two sides escalated on February 28, when Mr. Zelensky had a heated argument with Mr. Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
Mr Zelensky has since tried to mend ties, including sending a delegation to Washington last week to discuss a mineral deal pushed by Mr Trump.
Trump said on April 12 that the conflicting parties need to stop talking and start taking action. However, despite criticism, the White House boss remained optimistic about the prospects of a deal to end the conflict on April 14.
“I want to stop the killing and I think we’re doing a good job of that. I think you’re going to have some very good proposals coming out soon,” he said.
