As the United States prepares to impose its first fleet of sanctions on Russia following the country's effective invasion of Ukraine, former President Donald Trump is praising Russian President Vladimir Putin as "savvy" for taking such action.
Trump made the comments in an interview Tuesday on the conservative Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show. The day prior, Putin announced that Moscow is recognizing the independence of areas in eastern Ukraine, including the separatist "republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as territory currently held by Ukrainian forces, 1010 WINS reported.
In a fiery speech Monday, Putin said Ukraine was "created by Russia" and ordered "peacekeeping" troops into the eastern part of the country, a move that's seen as a pretext for possible further invasion.
Trump called Putin's decision "genius."
"Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine -- Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful," Trump said from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. "So, Putin is now saying, 'It's independent,' a large section of Ukraine. I said, 'How smart is that?' And he's going to go in and be a peacekeeper... That's the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were more army tanks than I've ever seen. They're gonna keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here's a guy who's very savvy… I know him very well. Very, very well.
"But here's a guy that says, you know, 'I'm gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent,' he used the word independent, 'and we're going to go out and we're going to go in and we're going to help keep peace,'" Trump continued. "You've got to say that's pretty savvy."
The 45th president went on to say this entire conflict never would have happened if he was still in the White House. He even linked the Ukraine crisis to his loss in the 2020 election to President Joe Biden saying, "What went wrong was a rigged election and what went wrong is a candidate that shouldn't be there and a man that has no concept of what he's doing."
"Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened," Trump continued. "I knew Putin very well. I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him. I mean, you know, he's a tough cookie, got a lot of the great charm and a lot of pride. But the way he — and he loves his country, you know? He loves his country. He's acting a little differently I think now... I think he sees this opportunity. I knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it. I said, 'You can't do it. You're not gonna do it.' But I could see that he wanted it. I used to ask him. We used to talk about it at length. I think nobody probably knows him better in terms of the discussions that we have or that we're having"
Trump contemplated the Biden administration possibly getting dragged into actual military conflict in Ukraine if the situation escalates.
"I don't like the idea he's sending a small number of troops. It's a joke compared to what the other side does. You know, he sends 3,000 troops, I heard this morning, 3,000 troops. What's that gonna do except get in trouble," Trump said. "They are handling Ukraine so badly."
Instead of sending troops to Ukraine, Trump said he'd "rather see our southern border protected."
Russia began evacuating its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday, and Ukraine urged its citizens to leave Russia as the region braced for further confrontation after Putin received authorization to use military force outside his country and the West responded with sanctions, the Associated Press reported.
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