‘It was the apple of his eye”: Trump says Putin informed him of intentions to invade Ukraine
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he maintains a “very good relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. As informs According to The Telegraph, during a speech at an event in Oakes, Pennsylvania, Trump emphasized that if he had been president, the invasion of Ukraine would never have happened.
“I get along very well with Putin,” Trump told his supporters.
At the same time, the politician added that during his presidency he would not allow such aggression. He stated that Putin spoke of Ukraine as the “apple of his eye,” but Trump assured him that he would not allow that to happen.
Trump also accused incumbent President Joe Biden of failing to stop the Russian invasion, arguing that Putin’s decision was prompted by the weakness of the current US administration. Trump noted that he had a good relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and promised to end the war in Ukraine before he is elected for a second term.
“Biden has done nothing about it — he hasn’t even spoken to Putin in over a year. This is a war that needs to end, and I’m going to end that war… I’m going to try to end that war as president-elect. I want people to stop dying , that’s all”, Trump said.
Trump’s comments came amid an excerpt from journalist Bob Woodward’s book War, which says Trump has spoken to Putin several times since leaving the presidency in 2021. According to Woodward, there have been at least seven phone conversations between Trump and Putin since his resignation, but the content of those conversations remains unknown.
In response to these reports, the Kremlin’s press service denied any contact between Trump and Putin after the end of Trump’s presidency. Putin’s press secretary Dmytro Peskov said that there were no such conversations.
