Unpacking Trump’s Latest Lies About Ukraine and Zelensky
[guest post by Dana]
Donald Trump has again blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war with Russia – a day after a major Russian attack killed 35 people and injured 117 others in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
The US president said Ukraine’s leader shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the “millions of people dead” in the conflict.
“You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,” he said at the White House on Monday.
More of his false claims:
“Millions of people dead because of three people,” Trump had said. “Let’s say Putin number one, let’s say Biden who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky.”
Questioning Zelensky’s competence, he said the Ukrainian leader was “always looking to purchase missiles”.
“When you start a war, you got to know you can win,” the US president said.
Trump further argued on Monday that “Biden could have stopped it and Zelensky could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it. Everybody is to blame”.
Trump has repeatedly lied about President Zelensky and who started the war Ukraine. We already know that the President of the United States has aligned himself with Russia. We already know that he has repeatedly criticized Zelensky, while remaining mostly silent about Putin. Additionally, Trump told the G7 this week that the U.S. would not support the G7’s joint statement condemning the massacre in Sumy on Palm Sunday, which left 35 dead and 119 injured. Trump claimed that if the U.S. supported the statement, ongoing negotiations with Russia would be disrupted.
The masks were barely there, but it's time for everyone to stop pretending Trump wants anything other than whatever Putin wants. "He just wants the war to end" & "upsetting negotiations" are idiotic things to say when he's condemning Zelenskyy & Biden instead of Putin.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) April 15, 2025
None of this is surprising, but it is a good reminder that the president is not to be trusted. Remarkably, he has made us Russia’s ally, and also the enemy of Ukraine. Imagine, the leader of the freest nation on earth allying with Russia – a terrorist state run by an evil, murderous thug who despises the West and the freedom it represents. And while Ukraine’s President Zelensky has worked tirelessly to protect his country from the onslaught of invading and occupying Russian troops, he is the one that Trump holds responsible for the war, blames for the lead up up to the war, and blames for the deaths of soldiers and civilians.
Trump and his administration have been all too eager to support our nation’s enemy. A despicable betrayal. Trump is a walking disgrace, a traitor to this nation and its ideals. For all his kowtowing to Putin, he seems to not realize that Putin owns him, and that he is a laughingstock on the world stage. So be it.
But let’s be very clear. Contrary to the lies that we are being told by Trump about the war in in Ukraine:
1) Putin invaded Ukraine. A ruthless dictator ordered the invasion of a sovereign nation.
2) Putin has had three years to stop the war, and has consistently chosen not to because he doesn’t want to end the war. He wants to wholly subsume Ukraine and make it part of his imagined empire, and then move on to the next country.
3) Putin is responsible for the deaths of Russian soldiers and civilians, as well as the deaths of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. If he had not invaded, Zelensky and his people would not have been forced defend themselves. There is a distinct difference between invading murderers and victims defending themselves.
4) Everybody is not to blame for the war. But we know who is to blame.
5) Putin is also responsible for the lives of 19,000+ kidnapped children. He could have ordered them returned at any time, but hasn’t.
6). Trump has enabled an evil regime to continue in its thirst for more domination. He has chosen to indulge his worst urges – you know, that particular one where he wants to be seen as a strongman in the eyes of the world’s most notorious strongmen.
7) One last thing: Trump also said that Russia’s Palm Sunday massacre was a “mistake”. It wasn’t. And he never condemned Russia for it.
Mr. Swift, you were so right:
Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it. . .
—Dana
Hello.
Dana (146f7e) — 4/15/2025 @ 7:52 pmEvery word, Dana, but one thing: Putin had eleven years to stop his war against Ukraine and he has been at war in Donbas ever since, but for 29 ceasefires, most of which Putin breached.
Trump seems unaware or didn’t give a rip about Putin’s aggression in Donbas in his first term, but it’s indisputable that he did nothing to end it. If anything, he sounded agreeable with Putin, that the Russian thug should occupy those areas because they speak Russian there (Donbas was 60% ethnic Ukrainian before his invasion and Crimea was 58% ethnic Russian). Zelenskyy’s mother tongue is Russian, but doesn’t mean he’s Russian.
At the 2014 CPAC, Trump praised Putin for not only having the good grace to invade Ukraine after (and not during) and Sochi Olympics, he approved of the way he did it, saying that it was the region with the most wealth, because it would cause the rest of country to fall and fall fairly quickly, as if he was rooting for the elimination of Ukraine. It’s nothing short of outrageous and anti-American and veritably traitorous.
In this interview eight years ago, Trump first denied that Putin was occupying part of Ukraine, then he lied that the Crimeans wanted to be part of Russia. They didn’t.
Trump denied that Putin murdered 298 souls when he shot down Flight MH-17 with a Russian Buk missile, despite the overwhelming evidence that he did it. There were never any Buk missiles in Ukraine’s stockpile.
Trump has repeatedly lied about Ukraine meddling in the 2016 election, dishonestly shifting the blame from Russia.
Trump was right during the campaign (and after) when he talked about “the enemy within” being the bigger enemy of this country than any foreign nation, and Trump is that enemy within. An enemy of America couldn’t have done a better job at aligning with the terrrorists, destroying our relationships with allies and friends, denying due process and other constitutional violations, and damaging a good economy with brainless tariffs.
Paul Montagu (84042b) — 4/16/2025 @ 7:41 amAnother sign that Trump is on the side of evil.
Paul Montagu (84042b) — 4/16/2025 @ 9:42 amWho would have thought Trump would be able to move Ukraine news to Page 3? But he has newer pathologies on display.
Kevin M (c96dc5) — 4/16/2025 @ 9:50 amI just hope that Europe isn’t waiting for Trump to change his mind.
Kevin M (c96dc5) — 4/16/2025 @ 9:51 amThere’s no logic and no explanation for Trump giving even partial responsibility to Zelensky for the war. What could he have done?
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 4/16/2025 @ 1:00 pmSimilarly “Hitler could have stopped it and Tojo could have stopped it, but FDR was the one who led us into war. He could have stayed out!”
Kevin M (ed3c87) — 4/16/2025 @ 2:17 pmNo, it’s more like blaming Chamberlain for declaring war after the invasion of Poland. Or blaming France. France did not the military (or cards) to stop Hitler.
Or blaming Poland for not settling with Hitler.
“Hitler could have stopped it and Stalin could have stopped it, but the Polish generals are also to blame.
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 4/16/2025 @ 2:27 pmSammy, I think this makes perfect sense. Trump looks for opportunities to take credit for anything good that happens and ways to assign blame to others for anything bad that happens. He doesn’t like Zelensky. He doesn’t like Biden so he blames them. He includes Putin because Putin could’ve stopped it. Also all three of them have created a situation in which Trump is unable to get praise.
Also, it’s a common theme of Trump‘s negotiating approach to assault attack domine people he’s working with. Especially when he wants them to give him something you work with Trump. He says you’re the greatest, etc. etc. you don’t work with Trump or resist what he wants or criticize him and he attacks you in an over-the-top way. You seem to be making the mistake of assuming that’s Trump’s statements are made because he has thought about the facts in the situation and believes them to be correct. I can’t think of many examples where Trump said things because he’s thought about the situation and believes what he’s saying to be correct.
Time (8e6784) — 4/16/2025 @ 5:03 pmWhere are BuDuh and NJRob and whembly and lloyd and the rest of the Trump/Putin brigade to moronsplain to us about how ACKSHUALLY it really is Zelensky’s fault
Patterico (ab97ad) — 4/16/2025 @ 5:09 pmWith crocodile tears they will explain that they are against Putin’s invasion, but there is nothing to be done about it.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/16/2025 @ 6:11 pm@10, If you consider that Trump has committed sexual assault on several occasions his instinct to blame the victim in this makes sense.
Time (98e450) — 4/17/2025 @ 10:31 am