Former Vice President Mike Pence responded strongly to claims made by his former boss, President Trump, about the war between Russia and Ukraine. Trump recently suggested that Ukraine started the war, which has been going on for three years.
Pence disagreed, saying, “Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth,” he posted on X, with flags of the U.S. and Ukraine.
Trump made the claim on Tuesday, stating that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “should have never started” the war. However, it was Russia that began the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after having taken control of Crimea in 2014.
Trump also repeated his claim that he could have made a peace deal, something he has said often during his 2024 presidential campaign. “You should’ve ended it in three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished and not one dome would have been knocked down,” Trump said Tuesday, after U.S. officials met with Russian officials about a potential peace agreement.
“But they chose not to do it that way,” Trump added.
Zelensky responded on Wednesday, saying Trump was living in a “disinformation space.” He added, “Unfortunately, President Trump, I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for, the American people who always support us, unfortunately, lives in this disinformation space.”
Pence, whose relationship with Trump worsened after the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, had also spoken out against Trump on Ukraine earlier this month. He warned that if the U.S. turns its back on Ukraine, Russia could take over the country.
“Mr. President, Ukraine will only ‘be Russian someday’ if the United States abandons them to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s brutal invasion. As you just said, ’When America is Strong the World is at Peace.’ Stand Firm,” Pence wrote.
He also warned, “If Ukraine falls, it will only be a matter of time until Russia invades a NATO ally our troops will be required to defend.”
Trump continued to criticize Zelensky, calling him a “modestly successful comedian” and accusing him of taking advantage of the U.S. for Ukraine’s war. Trump said Zelensky had done a “terrible job” leading Ukraine.
“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
