(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump laid the fault for the Ukraine-Russia war on former President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday, a claim his former national security adviser John Bolton called “total nonsense” on “NewsNation Now.”
Bolton argued Trump sympathizes with Vladimir Putin and isn’t prepared to blame the Russian president.
During Monday’s meeting with the press, Trump said of Ukraine, “When you start a war, you’ve gotta know that you can win the war — you don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope somebody gives you some missiles.”
Speaking on “NewsNation Now” following Trump’s comments, Bolton said it was “very clear” his sympathies are with Putin and the Russians.
“I think Putin reads Trump as an easy mark, and he’s getting what he wants. So, Trump’s finding a way to point at Zelenskyy and, of course, at Joe Biden, always a convenient target, when everybody who is looking at this objectively knows it’s Russia that started the war,” Bolton said.
On Sunday, Russia carried out a deadly attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy that killed 35 and wounded 117, according to Kyiv.
Russia claimed Monday that its attack was targeting Ukrainian troops and accused Ukraine of using civilians as shields by virtue of basing military meetings in the city center.
