Donald Trump blames Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war in Ukraine

Berliner Zeitung Donald Trump blames Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war in Ukraine Alexander Schmalz • 3 hours • 2 minutes read US President Donald Trump has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of starting Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. "When you start a war, you have to know you can win it," Trump told reporters during a meeting with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele. He added: "You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope they give you missiles." But Trump didn't blame Zelensky alone for the war. He said that "three people are responsible for the millions of deaths" in Ukraine, adding: "Let's say [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is number one, but let's say [former US President Joe] Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, is number two, and Zelensky is number three." According to Trump, Biden could have prevented the war by lowering oil prices, but he didn't. "So what do you do now? You get a country where 25 percent of the country is lost. That was Biden's war, and I'm trying to stop it." The relationship between Trump and Zelensky has long been strained. Shortly after taking office, the US president described his Ukrainian counterpart as a "dictator without elections." At the end of February, during a visit by Zelensky to Washington, a White House scandal erupted in front of live cameras, in which Trump and his Vice President J.D. Vance accused Zelensky, among other things, of a lack of "gratitude." Trump has been trying unsuccessfully for weeks to achieve a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, which has been going on for more than three years. On Monday, Trump said of the status of the negotiations that there would be "very good proposals very soon." A few hours earlier, Trump had declared on his online platform Truth Social that Biden and Zelensky had "allowed" Russia's war against Ukraine. "The war between Russia and Ukraine is Biden's war, not mine. [...] If the 2020 presidential election had not been rigged—and in many ways it was—this horrific war would never have happened. President Zelensky and the corrupt Joe Biden did an absolutely terrible job of enabling this farce," Trump wrote. Trump appears to be slowly losing patience after the Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy. He condemned the rocket attacks on the city center, which killed at least 35 civilians and injured around 120 on Palm Sunday. The Russian Defense Ministry denied responsibility for civilian casualties and stated that the attack was aimed exclusively at "military facilities." On Monday, according to media reports, the governor of the region confirmed that there was a military gathering there at the time. Governor Volodymyr Artyukh told the Suspilne news portal that it was not his initiative. "I was invited." According to the portal, Artyukh did not provide any information about who initiated the meeting, even when asked about it.