Why does Trump keep blaming Zelensky?
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed Ukraine — and President Volodymyr Zelensky — for the war, claiming that “none of this would have happened” if he were still in office. In a February 2025 statement, he told reporters, “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.” He even went so far as to say that “millions of people are dead because of three people,” naming Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and U.S. President Joe Biden.
These statements have been widely criticized as echoing Kremlin talking points and distorting the facts. In reality, Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and escalated to a full-scale war in 2022 — not because of any action or inaction by Zelenskyy, but because of Vladimir Putin’s long-standing ambition to reassert control over Ukraine.
Zelensky, elected in 2019 on a platform of reform and peace, has spent his presidency defending Ukraine’s sovereignty — not provoking war. Trump, by contrast, has a controversial history with both Zelensky and Putin. In 2019, he was impeached for withholding military aid from Ukraine while pressuring Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden — a move that risked Ukraine’s security for political gain.
Trump’s more recent claims — including that Zelensky is unpopular — have also been fact-checked and disproven. As of early 2025, polls showed that Zelenskyy still held a 57% trust rating among Ukrainians, and Trump’s remarks about U.S. aid to Ukraine have been shown to be exaggerated or misleading.
Whether Trump believes what he’s saying, or simply assumes his audience will, one thing is clear: the facts don’t back him up. Blaming Ukraine is not just inaccurate — it undermines international support for a country fighting for its survival.
