'Russia much powerful but Zelenskyy wanted to fight': Donald Trump blames Ukraine President for not negotiating

US President Donald Trump rebuked Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy for choosing to go to war with Russia, which is a "much bigger and more powerful" entity adding that the latter could have struck a deal with Vladimir Putin instead.

"Zelenskyy was fighting a much bigger entity, much bigger, much more powerful," Trump told Fox News. "He shouldn’t have done that, because we could have made a deal."

"I could have made that deal so easily, and Zelenskyy decided that 'I want to fight,'" he said.

Comparing the number of tanks the two countries had, Trump said that "you don't fight those" who have larger arms and ammunitions.


Meanwhile, Putin on Friday supported Trump's assertion that the Ukraine conflict could have been avoided if he had been in office in 2022. Putin also expressed Moscow's readiness to engage in discussions with the US on various issues.

“We always had a business-like, pragmatic but also trusting relationship with the current US president,” Putin said. “I couldn't disagree with him that if he had been president, if they hadn't stolen victory from him in 2020, the crisis that emerged in Ukraine in 2022 could have been avoided."

Reacting to this, Zelenskyy said that Putin was trying to "manipulate" Trump after Russian president said that he was ready for "peace talks" the US counterpart.

"He wants to manipulate the desire of the President of the United States of America to achieve peace. "I am confident that no Russian manipulations will succeed anymore," he said.

Despite Trump's claim that he could end the conflict within "24 hours" if in power, neither side has shown any signs of reducing hostilities since his inauguration.