「ゼレンスキー氏は戦争を始めさせてはならなかった」トランプ氏

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】米大統領選の共和党候補、ドナルド・トランプ前大統領（７８）は１７日、ウクライナのウォロディミル・ゼレンスキー大統領は戦争を未然に防げなかったと主張し、ロシアのウクライナ侵攻についてウクライナ側にも責任があるとの認識を示した。（写真は、米ニューヨークでドナルド・トランプ前大統領と会談するウクライナのウォロディミル・ゼレンスキー大統領）
　トランプ氏は、２００万人以上の登録者がいる「ＰＢＤ　Ｐｏｄｃａｓｔ」で、「ゼレンスキー氏は私がこれまで見た中で最も優秀なセールスマンの一人だ。米国は、彼が来るたびに１０００億ドル（約１４兆９０００億円）を与えている。歴史上、これほどの大金を手にした人物が他にいるだろうか？ いや、いない」と主張。
　「だからといって、彼を助けたくないわけではない。私はあの人たち（ウクライナ国民）を大変気の毒に思っているからだ。彼はあの戦争を決して始めさせてはならなかった」と続けると、直ちに批判の矛先を民主党のジョー・バイデン大統領に転じ、ウクライナ紛争を「扇動（せんどう）した」のは同氏だと非難した。
　トランプ陣営はＡＦＰの取材に対し、トランプ氏がウクライナ紛争の責任について非難したのはゼレンスキー氏ではなく、「明らかにバイデン氏だ」と釈明した。
　ロシアによる侵攻開始から２年以上が経過する中、ウクライナ側は、国民の士気低下を懸念して戦死者数をほとんど公表していない。だが、米紙ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル（ＷＳＪ）が先月報じたところによれば、ウクライナ紛争の死傷者数は両国合わせて１００万人を超える。
　米国はウクライナの主要支援国の一つで、侵攻開始以来、６４１億ドル（９兆６０００億円）以上の軍事支援を行っている。
　一方、米シンクタンク「大西洋評議会」ユーラシアセンターのシニアフェローで国家安全保障の専門家、ジョン・サイファー氏はＸ（旧ツイッター）への投稿にトランプ氏のポッドキャスト発言の動画を添え、「なんて卑劣な裏切り者だ」「彼はばかだ。なぜこれほど多くの米国人がそれに気づかないのか、世界中が不思議に思っている」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/10/18-17:00）

White House candidate Donald Trump on Thursday blamed US ally Ukraine for Russia's invasion, arguing that President Volodymyr Zelensky had failed in his duty to halt hostilities before they started.
The comments -- made in an interview with a podcast supportive of him -- sparked an immediate backlash as critics accused the 78-year-old Republican former president of being a traitor and an idiot.
Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I've ever seen. Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There's never been (anyone), Trump told the two-million-subscriber PBD Podcast.
And that doesn't mean I don't want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. He should never have let that war start.
Trump -- who is running against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris -- immediately pivoted to criticizing President Joe Biden, accusing him of having instigated the Ukraine war.
The Trump campaign told AFP the Republican was clearly talking about Biden and not Zelensky when he made his remarks about culpability for the war.
Ukraine communicates little about losses for fear of demoralizing its citizens after more than two years of Russia's invasion, but the Wall Street Journal reported last month that the war had killed or wounded a million soldiers on both sides.
The United States is one of Ukraine's main backers, and has disbursed more than $64.1 billion in military assistance to Zelensky's government since the start of the war.
Although Kyiv is a US ally and Moscow is considered an adversary, Trump touted his good relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin during a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky in September.
Trump was impeached for withholding vital weaponry from Ukraine after Russia's smaller-scale 2014 invasion, as he pushed its government unsuccessfully into announcing investigations into Biden, who was then his election rival.
A federal investigation identified numerous links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, which was found to have interfered in the 2016 US election on the Republican's behalf.
Criticism over Trump's apparent closeness to Putin was turbocharged last week by allegations that, while president, he sent the Russian leader Covid tests despite a US shortage and that the Republican and Putin may have been in contact numerous times since 2021.
What a despicable Traitor, the Republicans Against Trump lobby group posted on X, alongside footage of Trump's podcast remarks.
He's an idiot, and the whole world wonders why so many Americans don't see it, added national security analyst John Sipher, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center.