The conflict should have never happened, and all the parties involved did “everything” wrong, the US president says
The conflict between Moscow and Kiev is a “situation that should never have started,” US President Donald Trump has said, adding that “everybody” involved is to blame for the hostilities.
Trump made the remarks on Thursday while speaking to the press at the Oval Office.
Asked whether the upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin or broader incentives for peace were a reward for Moscow, Trump reiterated his position that the conflict should have never happened in the first place.
“I think that we have a situation that should never have started, it should never have started. It didn’t start under me, and for four years it wasn’t even discussed,” he said, suggesting that all the parties, including the previous US leadership, were to blame for the enduring hostilities.
“Everything that we did was wrong. Everything that was done was wrong. Everybody’s to blame. Putin’s to blame. They’re all to blame,” he added.
Earlier this week, Trump rubbished the assessment that the summit with his Russian counterpart itself already counted as a victory for Moscow. “Very unfair media is at work on my meeting with Putin,” Trump said on Wednesday, slamming outlets for “constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, ‘Putin has already won.’”
“What’s that all about? We are winning on EVERYTHING,” he added, dismissing the critical reports as “fake news.”
The summit, scheduled for Friday, is expected to focus on the Ukraine conflict, as well as on a broader range of issues related to ties between the US and Russia. Washington and Moscow have both been cautious about their expectations, signaling the meeting was expected to be the first top-level event in a string of talks rather than yield an immediate breakthrough.
