Afrigather In a brand new e book, President Joe Biden mentioned that he holds the Obama administration accountable for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, which culminated in Moscow seizing management of the Crimean Peninsula.
In response to Watergate journalist Bob Woodward’s forthcoming e book, Conflict, Biden expressed discontent throughout a non-public dialog late final yr over how his former working mate dealt with Russian troops invading Ukraine’s jap Donbas area in February 2014. On the time, Biden was serving as vp underneath former President Barack Obama.
“They f***** up in 2014,” Woodward quoted Biden saying to a detailed pal in December 2023, in line with the Related Press, who obtained a duplicate of Woodward’s e book earlier than its publishing date of October 15. “Barack by no means took [Russian President Vladimir Putin] critically.”
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photos
Biden can be quoted as telling the pal that the White Home “by no means ought to have let Putin simply stroll in there” and that Washington “did nothing” when Russia invaded.
Former President Donald Trump has additionally pointed blame on the Obama administration’s dealing with of Putin’s invasion, which boiled over into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Throughout a press briefing in 2018, Trump informed reporters that he had “an excellent assembly” with Putin earlier within the yr, throughout which the pair “mentioned about … the truth that President Obama allowed a really massive a part of Ukraine to be taken” in 2014.
“That was President Obama’s regime,” Trump added throughout the briefing.
Newsweek reached out to the White Home press workplace by way of e mail on Tuesday night time for remark.
After invading Ukraine in 2014, Russia held an election and annexed Crimea, a transfer that the USA and lots of Western allies referred to as unlawful. In response, Washington and far of Europe positioned sanctions on Russia, though in contrast to in 2022, Western nations didn’t present Ukraine with army support to combat again.
Throughout a 2023 interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Obama defended his response to Crimea’s annexation, saying that the circumstances in Ukraine weren’t the identical as they had been when Putin invaded in 2022.
“Ukraine of that point was not the Ukraine that we’re speaking about in the present day,” the previous president mentioned. “There is a cause there was not an armed invasion of Crimea, as a result of Crimea was filled with plenty of Russian audio system, and there was some sympathy to the views that Russia was representing.”
Trump vs. Biden’s Plan for Ukraine
Biden and Trump have repeatedly disagreed over how the U.S. ought to deal with the continued Russia-Ukraine conflict. The present White Home administration has stood agency in supporting Ukraine via support packages and protection boosts. Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has additionally vowed an analogous dedication to securing Ukraine’s sovereignty if elected to the Oval Workplace in November.
Trump, nonetheless, has been rather more elusive as to how he plans to deal with the conflict in Ukraine if he wins a second time period within the White Home. He, together with some Congressional Republicans, has been important of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the constant move of support to Ukraine, together with saying throughout a rally in North Carolina final month, “We proceed to offer billions of {dollars} to a person who refused to make a deal, Zelensky.”
The Crimean Peninsula has served as a key army hub for Russia since 2022. Ukraine’s protection forces have repeatedly focused infrastructure on the peninsula of their efforts to defend towards Putin’s newest invasion.
Trump’s Relationship to Putin
Trump has been accused of showing pleasant towards the Russian president each in workplace and on the marketing campaign path. Woodward writes in his e book that Trump and Putin have had as many as seven telephone calls for the reason that former president left workplace. Trump was additionally accused of sending secret shipments of medical gear throughout the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, together with ventilators.
Trump communications director Steven Cheung informed Newsweek in an e mail Tuesday that Woodward’s e book belonged in a “cut price bin.”
“None of those made-up tales by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a very demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Cheung added.
Trump has vowed to finish the conflict between Russia and Ukraine if elected in November. The previous president’s working mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, floated a possible avenue to convey an finish to the battle if Trump wins, throughout an look on the Shawn Ryan Present podcast in September. He mentioned a “peaceable settlement” within the conflict “most likely seems to be like the present line of demarcation between Russia and Ukraine, that turns into like a demilitarized zone.”
Russia occupies massive swathes of jap and southern Ukraine. Zelensky has mentioned that the conflict can not finish till all territory is returned to Kyiv, together with Crimea.
After a gathering with Zelensky in New York Metropolis final month, Trump informed reporters at a briefing that he and the Ukrainian president “have an excellent relationship.”
“I even have an excellent relationship with President Putin, and, , I feel if we win, we will get it resolved in a short time,” Trump added.
Zelensky responded to Trump’s remark that he hopes “we’ve got extra good relations with us.”
“It takes two to tango, and we’ll,” Trump replied.
Replace 10/08/24, 9:05 p.m. ET: This text has been up to date with further info and background.
