Trump, Putin, And Ukraine: Fact-checking Claims & Russia Interfer

ADJUSTMENT, Aug. 14, 2025: This story has actually been remedied to extra properly show Trump’s remarks in 2018 in Helsinki, Finland, concerning Russian disturbance, and his February 2025 statement regarding providing Ukraine $350 billion. Zelenskyy was last elected in 2019, but we improperly said his landslide triumph remained in March; it was in April.

Putin’s Justification for Invading Ukraine

Putin justified his intrusion of Ukraine by declaring that Russia seeks to “denazify” Ukraine. There’s no proof Ukraine is a Nazi state.

Yet our analysis at the time located that figure was incorrect; the White House really did not respond to us when we at first inquired about the figure. Cost price quotes of U.S. costs on Ukraine remained in the $175 billion to $185 billion array, Mark Cancian, a Center for Strategic and International Studies elderly protection and protection adviser, told PolitiFact.

US Aid to Ukraine: Fact vs. Fiction

The Obama management did not give dangerous armed forces help that Ukraine asked for in 2014. Nonetheless, it did give various other armed forces tools and training. We discovered in 2019 that the USA had actually given $1.6 billion in safety and security help to Ukraine considering that 2014, typically $300 million a year.

Director of National Knowledge Tulsi Gabbard launched a report that she said showed that President Barack Obama’s management had withheld details on the knowledge neighborhood’s probe into Russian disturbance in the 2016 political election.

In 2022, days prior to Russia invaded Ukraine, Trump matched as “genius” Putin’s choice to declare breakaway regions of Ukraine as independent. After reclaiming the White Residence a second time, Trump and Vice President JD Vance scolded Ukrainian Head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Putin’s battle adversary. As months passed without a peace deal, Trump shared frustration with Putin’s continuous battle technique.

Trump’s Statements on Putin and Russia

Putin likewise rejected Russian disturbance. Throughout a joint interview in 2018 in Helsinki, Putin stated, “The Russian state has never conflicted … into interior American affairs, consisting of political election procedure.” We ranked that Pants ablaze!

Russia’s Interference in the 2016 Election

Probes led by Unique Counsel Robert Mueller and the bipartisan Us senate Select Committee on Intelligence discovered evidence Russia interfered in the political election. The board’s 2020 record ended that “the Russian federal government took part in an aggressive, multi-faceted initiative to affect, or attempt to affect, the result of the 2016 governmental political election.”.

While competing office in 2016, Trump praised Putin and said Putin praised him. When they met in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018, Trump appeared to take Putin at his word when he incorrectly stated he really did not interfere in the 2016 united state political election.

In 1990, Ukraine’s parliament declared its independence from the Soviet Union, a refer to it as duplicated in August 1991. Ukraine finally gained its independence 4 months later on. In December 1991, Ukrainians elected overwhelmingly for self-reliance, and within days, the USSR liquified.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian forces introduced an invasion on Ukraine, a nation that the evening prior to went to tranquility. As people were resting, Russian soldiers and storage tanks rolled into Ukraine and projectiles put down in what united state military experts called the largest armed forces procedure in Europe considering that The Second World War. The strike complied with weeks of Russian army maneuvers.

Trump’s ‘Russia Hoax’ Claims

When talking about the 2016 election, Trump often refers to what he calls the “Russia hoax”– what he maintains is a made tale about Russia’s involvement in his winning political election versus Clinton.

In 2022, days prior to Russia got into Ukraine, Trump enhanced as “genius” Putin’s choice to proclaim breakaway regions of Ukraine as independent. Five years later on, Putin conjured up a conspiracy theory regarding Ukraine’s background to warrant his nation’s invasion and his management pushed frauds to cover up the battle’s toll, making PolitiFact’s 2022 Lie of the Year classification.

Even Russia’s state-sponsored media had reported or else. As journalists narrated the physical violence and scenes of possible war crimes emerged, Russia’s management asserted it was Russia that was under fire, not Ukraine. By accounts uploaded in Kremlin-run Telegram networks and Russian embassy tweets, the dead were not dead, the intrusion was not an invasion and Ukraine’s allies were complicit in atrocities.

By accounts uploaded in Kremlin-run Telegram channels and Russian consular office tweets, the dead were not dead, the invasion was not an intrusion and Ukraine’s allies were complicit in atrocities.

, if history is any kind of guide, Trump and Putin’s discussion will need fact-checking.. In 2017, PolitiFact called Trump’s assertions that Russia’s participation because election was “a made-up story” its Lie of the Year. 5 years later, Putin conjured up a conspiracy theory about Ukraine’s background to justify his nation’s invasion and his administration pressed fallacies to conceal the war’s toll, earning PolitiFact’s 2022 Lie of the Year classification.

In 2016, Trump talked to a roomful of TV cams and reporters (including this fact-checker) with a straight face regarding his then-political challenger, Hillary Clinton, and her use a private email web server while secretary of state.

Trump repeated the $350 billion number in very early August. Days prior to the Alaska summit, a White House spokesperson told PolitiFact that his number consisted of straight financing to Ukraine along with indirect financial costs. Among them: war-related rising cost of living and lost trade as a result of sanctions.

Ukraine Oversight, an U.S. government site created in 2014, said that since Sept. 30, 2024, the united state had actually spent $183 billion to aid Ukraine. (Since completion of March 2025 the web site revealed $184.8 billion.).

Trump made similar remarks in 2019 regarding Obama sending out “pillows and sheets.” (Previous Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko had actually used comparable language in 2014, informing Congress, “Blankets and evening vision goggles are important, yet one can not win a war with a covering.”).

Putin justified his intrusion of Ukraine by asserting that Russia seeks to “denazify” Ukraine. As people were sleeping, Russian soldiers and containers rolled right into Ukraine and rockets poured down in what U.S. armed forces experts called the largest armed forces procedure in Europe given that Globe Battle II.

The documents revealed Obama after that sought a more thorough intelligence community evaluation about Russian interference in the 2016 election, with an appearance backward and in advance right into Russia’s capacities. That does not total up to a coup.

Ukraine enforced martial legislation after Russia’s intrusion. Ukrainian law bans elections under martial law.

In this June 28, 2019, documents photo Head of state Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, throughout a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan. (AP).

Mueller’s 2019 record cleared the Trump project of criminally conspiring with the Kremlin but declared the knowledge community’s verdict that Russia preferred Trump over Clinton, and noted that the Trump project thought it would benefit on Election Day from Moscow’s interference.