US President Donald Trump, meeting at the White House with the leader of El Salvador on Monday, the 14th of April, accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former US President Joe Biden of starting a war with Russia a day after a massive Russian attack in Ukraine killed 35 people and that both leaders were as guilty as Russian President Vladimir Putin for the deaths of “millions of people” in the war, according to the British broadcaster BBC.
Trump’s comments came after widespread outrage over Russia’s deadliest attack on civilians this year, when missiles hit the north-eastern Ukrainian town of Sumy on Sunday.
Trump previously said the Russian attack was a “mistake”.
Questioning Zelenskyy’s competence, Trump remarked that the Ukrainian leader “always wants to buy missiles”.
“You don’t start a war against somebody 20 times your size and then expect people to give you missiles,” Trump said. “When you start a war, you have to know you can win”, he said, also blaming Biden for the conflict.
“Millions of people have died because of three people,” Trump said. “Let’s say Putin number one, let’s say Biden, who had no idea what he was doing, number two, and Zelenskyy”.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands, but not “millions” of people have been killed or injured on both sides since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022.
Tensions between Trump and the Ukrainian leader have been growing since their heated confrontation at the White House in February.
In an interview before Russia’s latest attack, Zelenskyy urged Trump to visit Ukraine before striking a deal with Putin to end the war.
At least 35 people were killed and 117 injured in the Russian attack on the town of Sumy.
Moscow said it fired two Iskander missiles at a gathering of Ukrainian soldiers, killing 60 of them, but gave no evidence.
Trump insisted that he wanted to “stop the killing” and said that proposals would be submitted soon, but did not comment further.
The conflict has been going on for more than a decade, since 2014, when the pro-Russian President of Ukraine was ousted. Russia then annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and supported rebels in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.