President Trump released a statement on Tuesday criticizing Joe Biden’s handling of the Ukraine-Russia crisis and claiming that Russia would not be invading Ukraine if he was in the White House.
The 45th president began by saying, “If properly handled, there was absolutely no reason that the situation currently happening in Ukraine should have happened at all.”
Trump was reacting to news of what the White House called a Russian invasion of the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine.
Putin also recognized the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in Ukraine as independent despite no historical precedence.
Trump claimed that because of his amicable relationship with Putin, he would never have invaded Ukraine on Trump’s watch.
The 45th president then suggested that Putin will be gaining wealth due to oil prices which continue to rise as the situation in Ukraine intensifies.
“Now it has begun, oil prices are going higher and higher, and Putin is not only getting what he always wanted, but getting, because of the oil and gas surge, richer and richer,” said Trump. “The U.S. was energy independent under the Trump Administration, an independence that we had never obtained before, and oil prices would have remained low. Now, what a mess our country is in!”
On Tuesday, Joe Biden announced sanctions against Russian entities and individuals. According to The Hill, “the sanctions would apply to a Russian development corporation, VEB bank, and Russian state lender Promsvyazbank, as well as targeting Russian sovereign debt to cut Moscow off from Western financing. The Biden administration also announced sanctions on five prominent Russians with links to the Kremlin and their family members.”
Trump criticized Biden’s sanctions on Russia and referred to them as weak and insignificant relative to taking over a country and a massive piece of strategically located land.
The Russians reportedly have anywhere from 150,000-190,000 troops stationed on the Ukrainian border. Joe Biden has claimed that U.S. intelligence shows that Putin will launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine within the next 48 hours.
But as of now, that full-scale invasion has not occurred.