Trump claims Ukraine is ‘absolutely obliterated’

Washington: Donald Trump has described Ukraine in bleak and mournful terms, referring to its people as “dead” and the country itself as “demolished”, raising further questions about how much the former US president would be willing to concede in any negotiation over its future if he is elected again.

In a speech on Wednesday (US time), Trump argued that Ukraine should have made concessions to President Vladimir Putin in the months before Russia’s February 2022 attack, declaring that even “the worst deal would’ve been better than what we have now”.

Donald Trump digressed from an economic speech in North Carolina to talk about Ukraine. Credit: AP

Trump, who has long been critical of US aid to Ukraine, frequently claims Russia would never have invaded if he had been president and that he would put an end to the war if he returned to the White House. But rarely has he discussed the conflict in such detail.

His remarks, at a North Carolina event billed as an economic speech, came on the heels of a debate this month in which he pointedly refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war. Instead, Trump touted the prowess of Russia and its predecessor, the Soviet Union, saying that wars are “what they do”.

The Republican, notoriously attuned to slights, began his denunciation of Ukraine by alluding to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent criticism of him and his running mate, J.D. Vance.

Zelensky, who is visiting the US this week to attend the UN General Assembly, told The New Yorker that Vance was “too radical” for proposing that Ukraine surrender territories under Russian control and that Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how”.

In North Carolina, Trump said: “It’s something we have to have a quick discussion about because the president of Ukraine is in our country, and he’s making little nasty aspersions toward your favourite president, me.”

He went on to paint Ukraine as a country in ruins outside Kyiv, short on soldiers and losing its population to war deaths and neighbouring countries. He questioned whether Ukraine had any bargaining chips left to negotiate an end to the war.

“What do you have left now? The country is absolutely obliterated ... Millions and millions of people – including all of these great soldiers – they’re dead,” Trump said.

“Any deal – the worst deal – would’ve been better than what we have now.

“If they made a bad deal, it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit, and everybody would be living, and every building would be built, and every tower would be ageing for another 2000 years.”

“What deal can we make? It’s demolished,” he added. “The people are dead. The country is in rubble.”

Volodymyr Zelensky signs military ordnance in Scranton, Pennsylvania.Credit: AP

Weapons request

Zelensky is pitching to the White House what he calls a victory plan for the war, expected to include a request to use long-range Western weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

The Biden administration said on Wednesday (US time) that the US would send Ukraine an undisclosed number of medium-range cluster bombs and an array of rockets, artillery and armoured vehicles in an aid package of some $US375 million ($549 million). A US official said billions more in assistance over the coming months would be announced on Thursday (US time).

While Ukraine outperformed many expectations that it would fall quickly to Russia, outnumbered Ukrainian forces face grinding battles against one of the world’s most powerful armies in the country’s east.

A deal with Russia would almost certainly be unfavourable for Ukraine, which has lost a fifth of its territory and tens of thousands of lives in the conflict.

Trump has laid the blame for the conflict on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival in November’s election. He said Biden had “egged it all on” by pledging to help Ukraine defend itself rather than pushing it to cede territory to Russia.

“Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelensky money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said.

Notably, Trump did not attack Putin’s reasoning for launching the invasion, only suggesting the Russian leader would not have started the war had Trump been in office. He did say of Putin, “He’s no angel.”

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has called on Zelensky to fire his country’s US ambassador after Republicans criticised the Ukrainian leader’s visit to a swing-state Pennsylvania site producing war munitions as a political stunt.

Johnson’s demand on Wednesday came as Zelensky addressed the UN in New York on the eve of his visit to Washington, where he plans to brief senators about the war effort before meeting Biden at the White House.

“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Zelensky.

AP

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