President Trump on Monday sought to distance himself from the war between Russia and Ukraine as his promise to end the conflict quickly has proven difficult to accomplish.
“The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, and everyone else, respected your President!”
Trump also blamed President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for “allowing this travesty to begin.”
“There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to STOP, AND FAST,” Trump added.
In comments to reporters in the Oval Office late Monday morning, Trump added Putin to the list of those at fault.
“Biden could have stopped it, and Zelenskyy could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it,” Trump told reporters. “Everybody’s to blame.”
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after massing troops on the border. The unprovoked invasion took place nearly a decade after Russia took over Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Trump’s post on Truth Social came after Zelensky appeared on “60 Minutes” Sunday night. Zelensky pushed back on some of the Trump administration’s assertions about the conflict, and he urged Trump to come visit war-torn Ukraine before making any final decisions.
The Biden administration provided billions of dollars in military and financial assistance to Ukraine to fight invading Russian forces. But many outspoken Republicans, including top Trump allies, have argued it is not in the United States’s interest to continue to aid Ukraine.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump made repeated lofty promises to end the war in Ukraine quickly. During a debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said he would get the war settled “before I even become president.”
But it has proven more difficult than Trump expected to bring the fighting to a stop. He has met with Zelensky and spoken with Putin. Trump’s envoy for Middle East affairs, Steve Witkoff, met in person with Putin in recent days.
Zelensky has said he accepted the terms of a ceasefire laid out by Trump administration officials, putting the ball in Russia’s court.
Critics have argued Russia is dragging its feet and is not interested in a ceasefire as it makes gains on the battlefield. Russian strikes killed more than 30 people in the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday.
Updated at 12:04 p.m.
