Donald Trump has responded to Russia’s latest deadly attack on Ukraine by criticising Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The US president took aim at his Ukrainian opposite number rather than Vladimir Putin in a rambling post on his Truth Social platform.
It came just hours after he appeared to downplay the Russian bombing – which killed at least 34 people on their way to church to mark Palm Sunday – by claiming it had been “a mistake”.
The atrocity was another blow to Trump’s hopes of brokering a peace deal to end the conflict.
In his Truth Social post, which was published this afternoon, Trump tried to heap the blame for the war on his predecessor, Joe Biden, and Zelenskyy.
He wrote: “If the 2020 Presidential Election was not RIGGED, and it was, in so many ways, that horrible War would never have happened.
“President Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin. There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to STOP, AND FAST. SO SAD!”
Responding to the missile attack to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night, Trump said: “I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing.”
However, he did not elaborate on his theory.
However, Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson rejected the suggestion that the bombing had been a mistake.
He said: “The strikes by the Russians over the weekend, and over recent months, are beyond the pale [and] they’re barbaric.
“We’re committed to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes to bring this barbaric war to an end and secure a just and lasting peace.”
A Ukrainian MP has accused Trump of spreading Russian propaganda with his comments.
Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said: “It’s like saying that 9/11 was just a ‘mistake’ by al-Qaeda.
“It is a very disturbing statement by Trump which both encourages Putin to continue atrocities and demonstrates that someone in Trump’s entourage is pushing Russian narratives.
“I believe that the FBI should investigate who in Trump’s entourage is spreading Russian propaganda. It’s dangerous.
“Trump used to say: if I were the president this would never happen. But now he can’t say this. All these atrocities are occurring on his watch. He is the president now.”
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