Donald Trump: This is a war (in Ukraine) that never should have started.

 

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, has a fundamentally different opinion on events in Ukraine compared to the opinion of Democrats, especially Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Obama, Biden and Harris say that the events in Ukraine began with popular outrage against the corrupt regime of the then Ukrainian President Yanukovych, who - on November 21, 2013 - postponed the signing of the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU. Obama personally called Yanukovych a corrupt ruler; see my article Democratic Party Politicians and the Ukrainian Crisis.

However, Donald Trump assessed the initial situation differently last year (see the quote and video below):

For decades, we’ve had the very same people, such as Victoria Nuland and many others just like her, obsessed with pushing Ukraine toward NATO, not to mention the State Department’s support for uprisings in Ukraine. These people have been seeking confrontation for a long time…

In my articles, I too have always emphasized the absolute absence of internal reasons for the protest movement – the so-called Euromaidan - that began in Ukraine at the end of 2013.

No one in their right mind would believe that people could start throwing stones at police and then start burning and killing because of something as trivial as a delay in signing some agreement.

In 1949 France became a member of NATO under one government; then in 1966 under another government, it left NATO's military structures, and in 2009 under another government, it fully returned to NATO. Probably, it will leave again in the future, then return again, etc.

In 1973, the UK became a member of the EU under one government, and left the EU in 2020 under another government. Probably, it will return again in the future, then leave again, etc.

In 1952, Greece entered NATO, in 1974 left it and in 1980 returned.

That is, countries constantly enter into some unions, leave them, return, etc. Nobody can understand why it was so important for Ukrainians to sign the association agreement with the EU exactly in 2013. 

Fifteen months after the signing of the agreement between Ukraine and the EU was postponed, the next Ukrainian presidential election was due to take place, in which Ukrainians could legally elect another President, who would have signed this agreement more quickly.

As for corruption under Yanukovych, during 10 years which passed since Yanukovych had been removed from office in February 2014, Ukrainian authorities failed to prove that Yanukovych had stolen even a cent.

But nobody in Ukraine was ever outraged by this fact; for example, in 2017 Ukrainians were outraged by a cruel treatment of a horse which drove a tourists' carriage in Odessa; see here.

By the way, information about Yanukovych was also removed from the Interpol data base and you can see it yourself on the official website of Interpol.

In March 2014, the Russian government decided to accept the Crimea – where the majority of population are ethnic Russians - into the Russian Federation; in my opinion, to a great extent due to the fact that protesters in Ukraine had begun to burn and kill during the Euromaidan; see my article Was there a threat for ethnic Russians in February 2014 in Ukraine (Crimean question)?

However, after acceptance of the Crimea into the Russian Federation, Ukrainian authorities began to threat with military measures for “re-integration of the Crimea” into Ukraine - please see the official website of the Ukrainian President.

And these threats were accompanied by large-scale deliveries of Western military equipment to Ukraine; see in this regard my article Has the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine been provoked?

As for the above mentioned Russian military operation in Ukraine, Trump lays blame for it on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. He said Biden “egged it all on” by pledging to help Ukraine defend itself rather than pushing it to cede territory to Russia; see The Associated Press.

P. S.
The title of this article “This is a war that never should have started” is taken from Donald Trump's speech during his presidential debate with Joe Biden.