Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the invasion of Ukraine might never have happened if Donald Trump had been the United States (U.S.) president at the time.
Echoing rhetoric from Trump’s speeches earlier this week, Putin stated in an interview:
“I cannot disagree with him that if he had been president – if victory hadn’t been stolen from him in 2020 – there might not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022.”
On Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social:
“Let’s end this war, which would never have started if I had been president! We can do this the easy way or the hard way – and the easy way is always better.”
Putin’s remarks, along with his alignment in language with Trump, repeating the false claim that the 2020 election was “stolen,” are likely to further fuel speculation about a potential meeting between the two leaders.
