Donald Trump has been accused of swallowing Kremlin lies after the US President described a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, which killed 34 people, as “a mistake”. And Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun also said apparent attempts to shift the blame for the war on to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky were “cowardly”, insisting: “Great leaders don’t do that.”
Speaking to CBS on Sunday after the tragedy, Mr Trump said: “I think it was terrible, and I was told they made a mistake, but I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing… for that war to have started is an abuse of power,” Trump said when asked about the Russian strike. “This is Joe Biden’s war. This is not my war; I’ve been here for a very short period of time. This is a war that was under Biden. He gave them billions and billions of dollars.”
He repeated his claims, without providing evidence, at the White House on Monday, saying: “The mistake was letting the war happen, if Biden were competent, and if Zelensky were competent, and I don’t know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy.
“He just kept asking for more and more, that war should have never been allowed to happen. That war, I went four years and Putin wouldn’t even bring it up.”
He added: “And as soon as the election was rigged, and I wasn’t here, that war started. There was no way that war should have been allowed to happen, and Biden should have stopped it.”
Pressed about Mr Zelensky’s attempts to buy more Patriot missiles, Mr Trump added: “Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right?”
Mr Trump’s remarks failed to impress Ms Sovsun, who, posting on X, said: “Excuse me—who started the war again?!
“Did Ukraine invade a neighboring country in 2014? Did Ukrainian tanks cross someone else’s border in 2022?
“Trump is not just twisting facts — he’s parroting Kremlin propaganda. Shifting blame from the aggressor to the victim is cowardly. Great leaders don’t do that.”
Also posting on X, Anton Geraschenko, a former adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry, said: “Eleven children that have been killed just by the Russian strikes on Kryvyi Rih and Sumy are not the results of “mistakes”.
“This is how Putin acts. Remember the strike on Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv while Prime Minister of India Modi was in Moscow, and discussed peace with Putin, among other things?
“Mass murders of Ukrainian civilians and Ukrainian children deliberately took place very close to Putin’s talks with President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff. Such strikes cannot be accidental.
“They are planned ahead, and they have been proven to have been launched by Russia.
“In two weeks, President Trump will have his 100 days in the office. Will he use his “superpowers” for real pressure on Putin? We will find out soon enough.”