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Donald Trump said the Ukraine crisis would not have happened if he were still president.
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Trump was impeached in 2019 after freezing nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine.
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He also previously said Crimea is part of Russia and praised Putin's actions as "genius" and "savvy."
Former US President Donald Trump, who was impeached for withholding nearly $400 million in military aid from Ukraine, said the country's current crisis "would never have happened" if he were still in office.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine early Thursday, with Russian troops swarming into the country from its northern, eastern, and southern borders. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Thursday evening address that 137 Ukrainians have died and 306 have been wounded as a result of the invasion.
Trump released a statement amid the crisis, saying, "If I were in Office, this deadly Ukraine situation would never have happened!"
The statement came after Trump earlier this week praised Putin's justification for invading Ukraine as "genius" and "savvy."
"I went in yesterday, and there was a television screen, and I said, 'This is genius.' Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful," Trump said when asked about the news. "I said, 'How smart is that?' And he's going to go in and be a peacekeeper."