Former US President Donald Trump has said the Russian invasion “would never have happened” if he was still in the White House and suggested Ukraine should have struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to prevent the invasion on 24 February, reports Newsweek.
“He (no – Putin) would not have done it with me. He wouldn’t have done it. At least they (ne.r. – the Ukrainians), should have made an agreement. He could have given up Crimea. He could have done something with NATO: “Okay, we’re not going to join NATO and we’d have a country,” because I think Putin wanted to make an agreement,” said Donald Trump.
“And now I don’t think (no – Putin) wants to make a deal. I think now it is much more difficult to reach an agreement. He bombs everything there (no – in Ukraine). And it is extremely, extremely sad to see this happening to Ukraine. It’s very, very sad,” said Donald Trump.
The former White House leader repeated his thesis that Russia’s troop build-up near the border with Ukraine was an “excellent negotiating” tactic and that the destruction and thousands of deaths caused by Russian troops could have been prevented.
“Those buildings that were completely burned down, all those dead. Many people were lost. An agreement could have been reached. All this should not have happened. But if it was meant to happen, it could have been fixed. And he (no – Putin) moved 200,000 troops to the border for negotiations and couldn’t get a deal — and now I’m not sure you can easily get a deal anymore,” Donald Trump added.
The former US president concluded that he did not believe Putin “ever intended” to start a war with Ukraine, but now “he’d rather have the whole country now that he’s started”.
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Source From: Libertatea
