Putin's moves in Ukraine were termed "genius" by Trump 

Former US President Donald Trump boasted about his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, claiming that the Ukraine conflict would not have occurred under his leadership.

“If properly handled, there was absolutely no reason that the situation currently happening in Ukraine should have happened at all,” stated in a statement.

“I know Vladimir Putin very well, and he would have never done during the Trump administration what he is doing now, no way!”

Putin’s decision to send troops into Ukraine to safeguard two separatist regions has sparked international outrage.

With tens of thousands of Russian soldiers deployed on Ukraine’s borders and fears of an all-out invasion, the move came as a surprise.

President Joe Biden ordered economic restrictions on the two enclaves, but a US official told reporters that “we are going to assess what Russia has done” when asked about possible measures against Russia.

According to the White House, Biden will speak to the nation about Russia’s actions at 1:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) today.

However, Trump, who had remained largely silent on Russia’s growing threat to the US ally, slammed the “weak” response, saying it did not match Russia’s actions.

“Now it has begun, oil prices are going higher and higher, and Putin is not only getting what he always wanted, but getting, because of the oil and gas surge, richer and richer,” Trump added.

Trump stated that the Russian president decided now — rather than during his own presidency — to invade Ukraine because he had a better relationship with Putin than President Joe Biden.

Trump’s claim that Putin moved to attack Ukraine because he was no longer president missed the fact that Russia had been supporting a conflict against Ukrainian forces in the Donbas during Trump’s presidency.

Additionally, Trump was impeached in 2019, in part, for withholding approximately $400 million in military help to Ukraine as it fought separatists backed by the Kremlin. Over 13,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million people have been displaced as a result of the war.

Trump also stated that the US had not been strong enough in its response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

“It’s a joke compared to what the other side does. You know, he sends 3,000 troops. I heard this morning, 3,000 troops. What’s that going to do except get in trouble?” Trump said. “No, I would like to see our southern border protected, and they are handling Ukraine so badly.”

Additionally, Trump stated that when he was president, he discussed Ukraine with Putin and that the Russian leader “always desired” to invade the neighbouring country.

“I knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it. I said, ‘You can’t do it. You’re not going to do it.’ But I could see that he wanted it. I used to ask him. We used to talk about it at length,” Trump said.

Trump’s relationship with Putin was contentious throughout his presidency, and it frequently attracted domestic criticism. Trump praised and defended Putin at a time when he was behaving increasingly like an authoritarian leader and US-Russia relations were at their lowest point since the Cold War.

When the two leaders met in Helsinki in 2018, Trump appeared to side with Putin against the US intelligence community on the matter of Russian election interference, perhaps the most prominent example of this. Trump backed down his words and acknowledged he misspoke after facing bipartisan criticism in Washington. However, in the years since, he has continued to flatter Putin.

With Russia beginning what President Joe Biden called as the “start of an invasion of Ukraine,” Trump is once again praising Putin while criticising an American president.