‘Biden’s War, Not Mine’: Donald Trump Remarks After Zelenskyy Urges Him To Visit Ukraine

<p>US President Donald Trump on Monday blamed the administration of former President Joe Biden for the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, claiming that the conflict would not have occurred had the 2020 US Presidential election not been &ldquo;rigged.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In a post shared on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote, &ldquo;The war between Russia and Ukraine is Biden&rsquo;s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, I had no problem preventing it from happening. President Putin and everyone else respected your President! I had nothing to do with this war, but I am working diligently to get the death and destruction to stop. If the 2020 Presidential Election was not rigged, and it was, in so many ways, that horrible war would never have happened.&rdquo;</p>
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<p>He further criticised both US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stating, &ldquo;President Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in 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.&rdquo;</p>
<h3><strong>Zelenskyy Urges Trump To Visit Ukraine: ‘Russian Narratives Prevailing In US'</strong></h3>
<p>Trump&rsquo;s remarks came after Ukrainian President Zelenskyy urged him to visit Ukraine in order to understand the destruction caused by the Russian invasion. The appeal followed a deadly missile strike on Sunday, when two Russian ballistic missiles hit the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, killing 34 people and injuring 119 others. Many residents were attending Palm Sunday services when the attack occurred, according to Ukrainian officials cited by NBC News and other international outlets.</p>
<p>In a CBS News interview broadcast on Sunday, Zelenskyy said, &ldquo;Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Referring to his tense meeting at the White House in February with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, which escalated into a live confrontation, Zelenskyy added, &ldquo;It seems to me that the vice president is somehow justifying Putin&rsquo;s actions. I tried to explain, &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t look for something in the middle. There is an aggressor and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>Trump has previously blamed Ukraine for provoking Russia&rsquo;s invasion and falsely accused Zelenskyy of being a &ldquo;dictator.&rdquo; Zelenskyy, in the same interview, pointed out, &ldquo;Russian narratives are prevailing in the U.S.,&rdquo; adding that this led to &ldquo;a shift in tone, a shift in reality.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Following Sunday&rsquo;s strike, Trump called the attack &ldquo;terrible&rdquo; and said that Russian forces had &ldquo;made a mistake&rdquo;, although he did not elaborate on what the mistake entailed.</p>
<h3><strong>Russian Missile Strike In Ukraine’s Sumy</strong></h3>
<p>Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a press briefing, &ldquo;I can only repeat and remind you of the repeated statements of both our president and our military representatives that our military strikes exclusively military and near-military targets.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The Russian Ministry of Defence stated that more than 60 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the Sumy strike, carried out using &ldquo;two Iskander-M tactical missiles.&rdquo; The Iskander-M is a short-range, surface-to-surface ballistic missile, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.</p>
<p>Zelenskyy&rsquo;s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the missiles contained cluster munitions &mdash; small bomblets that scatter over a wide area, making the weapon deadlier.</p>
<p>The strike occurred amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire. NBC News reported that Trump&rsquo;s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Friday. The meeting reportedly did not include Ukrainian representatives, and no details were released by either Moscow or Witkoff.</p>
<p>The attack on civilians sparked widespread condemnation. Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy to Ukraine, said the missile strike had crossed &ldquo;any line of decency.&rdquo; US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated, &ldquo;The U.S. extends our deepest condolences to the victims of today&rsquo;s horrifying Russian missile attack,&rdquo; calling it a &ldquo;tragic reminder&rdquo; of Trump&rsquo;s efforts to end the war.</p>
<p>In Europe, German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz described the attack as &ldquo;a perfidious act &hellip; and it is a serious war crime, deliberate and intended,&rdquo; during an interview with ARD. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was &ldquo;appalled at Russia&rsquo;s horrific attacks.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Within Russia, even some pro-Kremlin commentators expressed concern. Sergei Markov, a political expert, wrote on Telegram, &ldquo;It would be right for Russia to officially express its condolences now in light of the large number of civilian casualties in Sumy and at the same time to call on Zelensky and the Armed Forces of Ukraine to stop gathering children, and civilians in general, for military events.&rdquo;</p>