Trump Blames Biden, Putin, Zelenskyy For Ukraine War, Says He’s Working To End It

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

U.S. President Donald Trump blamed former U.S. President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday for the continuing war in Ukraine, saying it’s not his war and vowing once again to bring it to a swift end.

Trump’s comments on April 14 on a social media post and at the Oval Office came a day after Zelenskyy’s appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” The Ukrainian leader criticized the Trump administration’s claims that Ukraine shared responsibility for the war, calling them part of an “altered reality.”

“The war between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

“I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening. President Putin, and everyone else, respected your President!”

Trump accused both Biden and Zelenskyy of doing “an absolutely horrible job” in allowing the war to erupt, saying there were “so many ways of preventing it from ever starting.”

Speaking later to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that Putin also shared responsibility. “Biden could have stopped it, and Zelenskyy could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it,” he said. “Everybody’s to blame.”

Trump said his team is “making progress” in cease-fire efforts. Last week, his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Putin in St. Petersburg to discuss a U.S.-brokered peace deal.

While Ukraine has backed the cease-fire proposal, Russia has attached sweeping conditions that have effectively stalled the effort. Trump has urged Russia to “get moving” on a peace deal while emphasizing the devastating human toll of “a terrible and senseless war.”

Russia’s deputy envoy to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, told state-run news outlet Tass on Monday that Witkoff’s visit could pave the way for a future Trump–Putin summit, though a formal cease-fire is unlikely before Easter.

Trump’s comments came just hours after a Russian missile strike hit the Ukrainian city of Sumy, killing at least 34 people, including two children, and injuring more than 100, according to Ukrainian officials.

The attack was the latest in a series of recent airstrikes and drone attacks that have drawn sharp condemnation from international leaders.

European officials blasted the Sumy strike as further evidence of Putin’s disregard for peace talks. Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said the attack, which followed closely on the heels of Witkoff’s visit, “demonstrates that Russia shows full disregard for the peace process.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot echoed the criticism, saying Putin has no intention of agreeing to a cease-fire.

Zelenskyy, in his “60 Minutes” interview, pushed back against Trump’s earlier claims that Ukraine may have provoked the war, saying: “There is an aggressor and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim.”

Zelenskyy also appealed to Trump to visit Ukraine, see the devastation for himself, and “then let’s move with a plan how to finish the war.”