“Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it — three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Almost three years to the day since Russia invaded Ukraine, President Donald Trump accused Ukraine of starting the war. He made his comment after being asked about Ukraine’s irritation at not being invited to peace talks held in Saudi Arabia between Russian and U.S. officials.
“I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump said. “Well, they’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that. This could have been settled very easily, just a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without … the loss of much land, very little land, without the loss of any lives.”
Trump’s declaration was shocking. Mike Pence, his former vice president, posted on X: “Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Trump of living in a Russian-made “disinformation space” — and then Trump shot back with an attack on Truth Social.
