In an incredible statement the equivalent of blaming a rape victim for being raped, Trump blamed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Ukraine itself during talks with Russia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, February 18, 2025.
Ukrainian authorities were upset over not being included in Tuesday’s talks in Riyadh, but Trump dismissed the country’s concerns, saying Ukraine had “had three years to end the war,” before blaming the start of the conflict on Kyiv.
“You should have never started it,” Trump said, echoing a Kremlin talking point. The Kremlin has previously accused Ukraine of starting the war against Russia.
It is an undisputed fact that Russia invaded Ukraine unprovoked on February 24, 2022, after seizing the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014.
Trump also told other outright lies, many that echo Putin’s talking points: Trump claimed Zelensky has an approval rating of 4% among Ukrainians. That’s not true. The most recent polling done in Ukraine shows him with a 57% approval rating on Feb. 19, 2025, according to the Kiev Independent, a rating 5 points higher than it was in December of 2024. Trump also said Zelensky is a “dictator without elections,” echoing a narrative by Putin, who has called Zelensky an illegitimate leader. Zelensky is the democratically-elected president of Ukraine. Zelensky had to enact martial law due to Russia’s war, which has kept the country from being able to hold elections amid bombings, attacks on civilian dwellings and infrastructure in Ukraine and other aggressive moves.
Trump’s numerous lies about Russia’s war on Ukraine demonstrates his inability to grasp well-established facts, which weakens and embarrasses the U.S. on the global stage.
Trump siding with Putin is also worrisome because Putin is known globally as a war criminal, and a serial murderer who has his critics killed.
Even the Heritage Foundation, the conservative right wing organization that penned Trump’s playbook, Project 2025, agrees that Putin is a killer.
Best response I’ve seen so far was that Trump obviously doesn’t really think Zelensky is a dictator, otherwise he’d be sucking up to him.
Trump was likely referring to the time before the invasion when Zelenskyy could have negotiated…primarily assuring Putin about not joining NATO. Perhaps some of you geniuses will remember the promise made to Putin back in the 1980s about NATO not moving “one inch east.”
But probably not, since you people only remember stuff that happened at most two years ago and involved something horrible about Trump. (did you know he’s a convicted felon?)
Nevertheless…Zelenskyy was romanced by those who just love a good war and made a stand…the result of which was to lose hundreds of thousands of his people.
Fingers crossed these new negotiations will mark the end of this horrible era.
There it is…the most spineless thing I’ll read all day.
That “promise” was made to Gorbachev, in the early 90’s, by James Baker.
Putin attacked Ukraine in 2022.
Zelensky is fighting for his people’s freedom, which Trump (and you, as his appendage) are clearly against.
You are without honor.
It’s not even shocking anymore…it’s just tiring.
Yes, Zelensky stood up to Putin, so the war is all his fault. Just like the US started the war with Japan by embargoing oil. Britain started WWII in Europe by not building a bridge across the Channel for the German troops. You’re only about a half-step away from blaming the Jews for the Holocaust, harry. And I bet you can’t even see it.
Russia started the war by invading a sovereign country. Asking to join NATO is not starting a war. But thank you for proving what a Putin apologist you are.
Hairy, your claims are flawed, false, and based on your viewing of Tucker Carlson. Your attention span of 10 minutes is substantially lower than the 2 year span which you attribute to others. Zelenskyy has not lost hundreds of thousands of people, unless you include the emigrants. I won’t waste time to debunk that. I will take time to debunk your claim that a promise was made to Putin in the 80’s. ‘Not One Inch’, a good read, refers to a 1990 statement from James Baker to Gorbachev over the optics of the withdrawal of 300,000 Soviet troops at the Germany reunification. The Russians wanted NATO expansion assurances, but they weren’t going to get them, pursuant to the Helsinki act of 1975. The Soviet Union dissolved shortly thereafter.
Russia agreed to the Budapest Memorandum, guaranteeing security for Ukraine. The Ukraine war started in 2014. Crimea fell to Russia’s invasion, and in the spirit of saving Ukraine lives from Russian green men in DOnetsk and Luhansk, Ukraine and Russia signed the Belarus Accord. Russia continued to attack Ukraine, while Germany’s Merkel tried to placate and felatiate Putin. Zelensky was elected in 2019, and fairly I might add. While Russia militarized the border, Russia’s ask was for Zelensky to make NATO retreat from all of Eastern Europe. Can you see how this is not something in Zelensky’s control?
With the exception of Merkels’ prowess, those are the historical facts. What do I have wrong?
So this is about Trump. I never have liked him, and his words sound awful. Trump should not be taken literally, but he should be taken seriously. It could be that he is trying to seduce Putin into a cease fire. Russia will not concede unless they can declare victory in some way. Russia has committed to a war economy which cannot be reversed and does not stop in Ukraine. A defeat will result in Putin’s assassination. Putin has ambitions in the Baltics, but sooner in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.. maybe Romania, maybe more action in Georgia. If Trump really believes the words he says, we are in trouble and not in conclusion but rather the beginning of a horrible era.
I spend over an hour daily following the war. I have seen things that are shocking … daily drone kill shots, drone videos of suicides, pigs and even cats feeding on dead Russian corpses, the tragedies of ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine civilians. My family stood on the line during Baltic resistance leading to their Independence. My best man stood down Russian tanks at the same period. You have no clue regarding Russia.
I went to some detail in hopes to inform all. You are a child when it comes to foreign affairs.
Put on your dunce cap and sit in the corner with Seamus and Bill.
Way to straddle that “both sides are bad” line, cowboy. I suppose the lack of spine enhances flexibility.
Trump meant what he said. He’s not a skilled negotiator, he’s a toady to anyone he thinks is stronger, or richer.
This is one of the sickest and most sickening statements he’s made lately – and there have been too many to count. Can he truly believe that his followers will accept this as fact? I know the answer, but still: it makes my heart ache for what once were measured and “presidential” statements by our Commander-in-Chief. Plus – DJT has now referred to Mr. Zelensky as a “dictator”. Our former(?) NATO allies have expressed their revulsion, just as I am doing now.
Since this is self-evidently wrong, it means Trump is either delusional or a Putin-puppet. Which is it, MAGAts?
Harry? Care to weigh in?
$5 says he’ll claim Trump is either “brilliantly trolling the Dems”, or that Trump is somehow correct, using some convoluted argument, or (my bet) he won’t address it at all.
Honestly, guys – I couldn’t care less about whether or even how “Harry” might respond, because there simply is no rational way to defend those statements. It’s often like we’re living in the ancient Actions Comics’ version of “Bizarro World ” these days.
Make that DC Comics, but still . . .
Despite all his bluster and self-crowning as a king, Trump is weak at his core, and kneels before anyone he sees as stronger or richer; much like those who slavishly follow him.