Trump invents a new 'excuse' for Russia's war against Ukraine
Donald Trump (photo: Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump has claimed that Russia's war against Ukraine began because of "incompetence."
The White House chief said he wanted to speak frankly about the issue and "go a step further."
Amid this, he once again repeated that he would not have allowed Russia to invade Ukraine if he had been president at the time.
"That war would never have started. There was no reason that the war between Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence. It should have never started," Trump said.
He also falsely claimed that Ukraine had lost 30% of its territory during the war with Russia.
#Trump invents a new "reason" for the outbreak of #Russia's war against #Ukraine
— RBC-Ukraine (@NewsUkraineRBC) October 10, 2026
He said the war started because of incompetence, and it should never have happened.#Trump also claimed that #Russia had already occupied 30% of #Ukraine's territory. pic.twitter.com/ko3O9lnVYU
Notably, as of early October 2026, Russia had occupied approximately 19% of Ukraine's territory, including Crimea and parts of the Donbas seized before the full-scale invasion. This amounts to about one-fifth of the country's territory.
That same day, Donald Trump publicly addressed Ukrainians and suggested they elect a new president to replace Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On October 9, the White House chief announced an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said Russia would supply millions of tons of diesel fuel to the US and global markets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among the first to comment on the decision. He noted that Trump was effectively giving Putin additional money to fund the war.
