Former President Donald Trump is criticizing President Joe Biden’s handling of the tense stand-off between Russia and Ukraine.
In a statement on Tuesday, Trump said, “If properly handled, there was absolutely no reason that the situation currently happening in Ukraine should have happened at all. I know Vladimir Putin very well, and he would have never done during the Trump Administration what he is doing now, no way!”
“The weak sanctions are insignificant relative to taking over a country and a massive piece of strategically located land. Now it has begun, oil prices are going higher and higher, and Putin is not only getting what he always wanted, but getting, because of the oil and gas surge, richer and richer,” he continued.
Finally, he said, “The U.S. was energy independent under the Trump Administration, an independence that we had never obtained before, and oil prices would have remained low. Now, what a mess our Country is in!”
Read the statement below:
NEW FROM 45:
— Margo Martin (@margommartin) February 22, 2022
“If properly handled, there was absolutely no reason that the situation currently happening in Ukraine should have happened at all. I know Vladimir Putin very well, and he would have never done during the Trump Administration what he is doing now…” pic.twitter.com/CPWjgioeZO
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
As NPR notes, “Putin’s declaration names the regions the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic. Both are unrecognized territories carved out by Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of east Ukraine after fighting broke out there with Ukrainian government forces in 2014.”
Putin later announced that he would send Russian troops to those regions as part of a “peacekeeping” mission.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that the U.S. would “prohibit new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine” in response. And Biden is expected to announce new sanctions against Russia.
After the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, Trump offered blistering criticism of Biden over his handling of that situation, as IJR reported.
