Former UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has pointed out the “genuine fake news that the White House now spouts” following Donald Trump’s latest comments on Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters suggested that Ukraine was to blame for its war with Russia, saying the nation should “never have started” the conflict.
This came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Riyadh met for the first high-level talks between the two countries in regards to ending the war.
Ukraine was not invited to the negotiations, something that President Volodymyr Zelensky labelled a “surprise.”
Trump said Ukraine “could have made a deal,” before claiming he could have made a deal “for almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed and no city would have been demolished.”
Now, former UK secretary of state for defence Ben Wallace has accused Trump and the White House of peddling “genuine fake news.”
In a post on X, Wallace, who was defence secretary from 2019 to 2023, listed three false claims the White House “now spouts” with Trump in power.
He wrote: “Here are some genuine fake news that the Whitehouse now spouts: 1. We have given over double what Europe has to Ukraine. In fact Europe has given more.
“2. Zelensky claims he doesn’t know where half the donations have gone so they must be corrupt .A large proportion of aid has actually been spent by donor nations on their own replacements of gifted kit. So some large sums are “spin”. The US for example has sent only $100 bn of the $175 bn as direct aid to Ukraine and spent at least $25bn on its own replenishment.”
The third point referenced Trump’s words about Ukraine ‘starting the war’, with Wallace stating this line was “straight out of the Kremlin talking points.”
He concluded: “I think what President Trump is learning is that if you have no skin in the game you don’t get to decide the fate of Ukraine. I am sure they all enjoyed their 4 hour talks today but they probably shouldn’t have wasted their time.”
It is almost three years since Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine, sparking the war between the two nations. This came eight years after Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea.
Trump has suggested it is unlikely that Ukraine will get back the land claimed by Russia.
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