 "From Russian invasion to Zelenskyy's election, Trump rewrites Ukraine war's history with lies")
In the latest salvo in his vilification campaign against Ukraine and its leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US President Donald Trump has gone from being critical for continued US support to Ukraine to openly hostile to Zelenskyy.
Parroting Russian talking points, Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war, dubbed Zelenskyy an unelected dictator, and essentially called for his ouster. He also went to flash false figures for US financial assistance to Ukraine.
While Trump and his allies have repeated Kremlin’s propaganda for long and have been friendly to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump’s lies this time were so blatant that even some of those who endorsed him called him out.
Here are all the lies that Trump has spewed in his latest salvo.
Trump said Ukraine started the war — it did not (obviously)
While berating Ukraine for not yet agreeing to a deal to end the war, Trump on Tuesday said that Ukraine should have never started the war in the first place.
“You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal,” said Trump.
This is not a misrepresentation of facts, which Trump and his allies do on a daily basis, but a complete lie. This is like saying that the United States attacked a neutral Japan at Tokyo and dragged the country into World War II — whereas Japan dragged the United States into the war with the attack on Pearl Harbour.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The entire world watched Russian tanks, armoured vehicles, and aircraft enter Ukraine and attack the country. In a speech, Putin himself said that he had ordered the invasion, which he dubbed “special military operation”.
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View AllPutin said that he made a decision to launch the “special military operation” two days before.
“The purpose of this operation is to protect people who, for eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime. To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation,” said Putin.
Putin himself said Russia launched the attack, but Trump still said Ukraine started the war.
Actually, Russia had started the war way back in 2014 when it invaded Ukraine’s Crimea region, occupied it, and annexed it. It then supported an insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Therefore, Russia had already been waging a low-intensity war on Ukraine for eight years before launching the full-scale invasion.
Trump accused Zelenskyy of being ‘dictator without elections’
In a rant on Truth Social, Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections” and essentially called for his ouster.
Trump said that as elections have not been held lately in Ukraine, Zelenskyy has no mandate to govern. That is of course a lie.
Under Ukrainian law, elections cannot be held during martial law. The country is currently under martial law because of the ongoing war.
Ironically, hours after Trump called Zelenskyy a dictator, the White House posted a photograph of Trump in robes and a crown and said: “Long live the long!” Not that there were doubts that Trump and his allies considered him to be above the law of the land and the Constitution, but the White House’s post removed any doubts that anyone might have still had.
"CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!"
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 19, 2025
–President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/IMr4tq0sMB
Trump said Zelenskyy has 4% approval rating — of course false
Separately, Trump told reporters that Zelenskyy had 4 per cent approval rating, that was of course again a lie.
As per a latest survey in February, Zelenskyy has the approval rating of 57 per cent.
Ironically, Zelenskyy’s approval rating is more than of Trump, who has a rating of 48.7 per cent, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Trump invents aid figures out of thin air
In yet another lie, Trump said in his Truth Social rant that the United States had sent $350 billion in aid to Ukraine.
That number has no basis in either US government records nor in independent assessments.
As of Sept. 2024, the CNN reported that United States has allocated around $183 billion in aid to Ukraine, out of which only $86.7 billion had been disbursed, according to the US inspector general overseeing the US response to the situation in Ukarine.
Separately, German think tank Kiel Institute for the World Economy has assessed that the United States pledged around $124 billion in aid to Ukraine between 2022 and 2024.
Trump said Zelenskyy didn’t meet US Treasury Secretary — he did
Not that there is a contest of Trump’s lies, or that there can be one, Trump on Wednesday said that when US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent travelled to Ukraine last week, Zelenskyy did not meet him as he was sleeping. That is a complete lie.
There are photos of their meeting and several journalists have said they attended the press briefing of Zelenskyy and Bessent.
“Scott Bessent actually went there and was treated rather rudely, because essentially, they told him ’no’, and Zelensky was sleeping and unavailable to meet him,” said Trump.
On Feb. 13, Zelenskyy shared photos of the meeting with Bessent on X and said: “We received the US vision for deepening our cooperation, discussed the substance of these proposals today, and are working toward a strong agreement. We expect to make progress by the Munich Security Conference.”
It was an apparent reference to Trump’s proposal to acquire Ukrainian natural resources in exchange for continued aid. Zelenskyy rejected the proposal as it would have amounted to economic colonisation of Ukraine by the United States.
I had a meeting with @SecScottBessent—his first international visit, which was to Ukraine. We value our partnership with the United States, are grateful for the support in defending our independence, and strive to expand our joint capabilities—especially in security.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 12, 2025
Security… pic.twitter.com/Px2VQ0Cnv0
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