Vladimir Putin's endorsement for Donald Trump? ‘Ukraine war not have happened if…’

The Russian president also voiced support for Trump's claim that he, not Joe Biden, was the real winner of the 2020 US election.

Published on: Jan 24, 2025, 22:10:18 IST

By HT News Desk

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the “crisis in Ukraine” might have been averted if Donald Trump had been the president of the United States at that time.

US President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin hold a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017. (AFP)

He also voiced support for Trump's claim that he, not Joe Biden, was the real winner of the 2020 US election and that his victory was "stolen".

"I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president – if his victory hadn't been stolen in 2020 – then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022," Putin told a state TV reporter, according to AFP.

Putin said that he and Donald Trump should meet to talk about the Ukraine war and energy prices. He also described the US president as smart and pragmatic, according to Reuters.

Also Read | Russia reacts to Trump's remarks on Ukraine war: ‘Not about oil prices’

Putin said he did not expect Trump to make decisions on sanctions that would rebound on the US economy.

"Therefore, most likely, it would be better for us to meet, based on the realities of today, to talk calmly on all those areas that are of interest to both the United States and Russia. We are ready," Putin said.

Putin's reaction comes a day after Trump urged him to "make a deal" with Ukraine to end the ongoing war immediately.

Addressing the media from the Oval Office, Trump, who recently assumed the presidency for the second time, said the war between Russia and Ukraine is "ridiculous" and causing needless suffering.

Also Read | Donald Trump says ‘Vladimir Putin is destroying Russia’

"I think he (Putin) should make a deal," Trump told reporters. "That battlefield is like no battlefield since World War II... and I have pictures that you don't want to see. Soldiers are being killed daily at numbers that we haven't seen in decades. It would be nice to end that war. It's a ridiculous war."

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