Trump, who was impeached for withholding nearly $400 million in military aid from Ukraine, said 'this deadly Ukraine situation would never accept happened' if he were in part

  • Donald Trump said Russian federation's invasion of Ukraine wouldn't have happened if he were still president.

  • Trump was impeached in 2019 after freezing nearly $400 one thousand thousand in armed forces assistance to Ukraine.

  • He previously said Crimea was part of Russian federation and praised Vladimir Putin'due south actions as "genius."

Onetime Us President Donald Trump, who was impeached for withholding about $400 1000000 in military machine assist from Ukraine, said the land'south current crisis "would never have happened" if he were yet in role.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-calibration invasion of Ukraine early on Thursday, with Russian troops swarming into the land from its northern, eastern, and southern borders. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Thursday-evening address that 137 Ukrainians had died and 306 had been wounded as a event of the invasion.

Trump released a statement Thursday, saying, "If I were in Office, this deadly Ukraine state of affairs would never have happened!"

Trump earlier this calendar week praised Putin's justification for invading Ukraine as "genius" and "savvy."

"I went in yesterday, and there was a tv screen, and I said, 'This is genius.' Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that'due south wonderful," Trump said when asked about the news. "I said, 'How smart is that?' And he's going to get in and be a peacekeeper."

His comments stood in contrast to those of US officials, who warned that Putin'south recognition of two Kremlin-backed separatist regions in Ukraine was function of an effort to create a false pretext and invade the country.

Trump was impeached in 2019 on charges of abuse of ability and obstruction of Congress. The articles of impeachment were related, in office, to Trump's efforts to strong-arm Zelensky into launching politically motivated investigations against the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election and withholding vital military assistance while doing then.

The hold on the security assistance was lifted after Politico reported on Trump'due south actions and Firm Democrats launched an investigation into the matter.

In 2018, Trump again shocked American allies past eschewing years of US foreign policy and telling G7 leaders that the territory of Crimea was function of Russia. His remarks were especially jarring to the leaders of other member states given that information technology was Russia's determination to annex Crimea in 2014 that led to its expulsion from the G8.

But Trump told reporters earlier that twelvemonth'south G7 acme that he believed Russia should be admitted back into the brotherhood, and he also reportedly wondered aloud at the summit why globe leaders sided with Ukraine over Russian federation.

Before Trump'south statement Thursday, he made similar remarks during a Play tricks News interview. Only every bit the Russian offensive in Ukraine was beginning to unfold, he blamed the situation on the 2020 The states election, which he called "rigged."

"Well, what went wrong was a rigged election and what went wrong is a candidate that shouldn't be at that place and a human that has no concept of what he'southward doing," Trump said on Fox News, calculation that the invasion "never would take happened with us — had I been in role, not even thinkable. This would never have happened."

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