President Joe Biden's rhetoric about Ukraine's possible accession to NATO provoked Vladimir Putin to start a military operation in Ukraine, US presidential candidate Donald Trump said during a conversation on the All-In Podcast channel, Liga News reported.
"For 20 years, I heard that if Ukraine goes into NATO, it's a real problem for Russia. I’ve heard that for a long time. And I think that's really why this war started. ... Biden was saying all of the wrong things. And one of the wrong things he was saying, 'No, Ukraine will go into NATO,'" Trump said.
The former US president believes that Russia's military operation in February 2022 was triggered by Ukraine's aspiration to join the North Atlantic Alliance.
Trump reiterated that if he were the US president, the war between Russia and Ukraine would not have started.
"But if you look at the rhetoric from Biden, he was saying the opposite of what in my opinion you had to say. The things he was saying, and he's still saying it, he's saying things that are so crazy," added the US presidential candidate.
SD/PR