Trump stated about Ukraine's defeat - did he mean Iran? 0 25

From a military point of view, Ukraine has suffered a defeat by Russia. This was stated by U.S. President Donald Trump during a conversation with journalists at the White House on the evening of Wednesday, April 29, in the presence of the crew of the Orion spacecraft, which orbited the Moon as part of NASA's Artemis 2 mission.

When asked which war, in his opinion, would end sooner - in Ukraine or in Iran, Trump replied: "I don’t know. Maybe around the same time. I think, militarily, Ukraine has suffered a defeat. You won’t learn about this by reading fake news, but militarily..." The U.S. president then began to list: "Look: they had 159 ships. Every ship is now underwater... It will be hard for them to make a comeback with the Navy. Okay. They have military aviation. Every one of their planes has been shot down or destroyed."

Whose fleet and aviation have been destroyed: Ukraine's or Iran's?

This passage was interpreted by some media as Trump’s statement that the entire naval fleet and all aviation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been destroyed. Meanwhile, the head of the White House continued: "They have missiles. About 82% are gone. They still have drones, and most of them are destroyed. Most factories are practically destroyed. And we have great equipment for fighting drones, with lasers and this new, special gun that takes them out of the air like flies." Only after this did it become clear that Trump was referring to Iran and the actions of the U.S. and Israel in the war against that country.

The potential slip of the tongue by Donald Trump was noted by the online publication The Insider, which remarked: "The 159 ships that are supposedly all sunk have been used by Trump repeatedly in relation to Iran in the context of the war in the Middle East. The Ukrainian Navy has never had that many combat ships, so such total destruction of the fleet could not have occurred."

Trump: NATO did not fulfill U.S. requests regarding Ukraine

In response to one of the subsequent questions, Trump stated that the U.S. had approached NATO regarding both Ukraine and Iran. "We asked NATO to help us with Ukraine, just recently we asked them to do certain things regarding Ukraine, we also wanted them to do some things regarding Iran. On the issue of Ukraine, they are very involved, but they haven’t done those things the way we would like them to," Trump pointed out.

Commenting on his phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which took place on the same day, the American president said that he suggested to Putin to introduce a "small ceasefire regime." "He can do it. Maybe he will announce something in this regard (...) I asked him for at least a small ceasefire. So many people are being killed there, it’s so stupid!" Trump noted.

According to the head of the White House, Putin offered to help him end the war in Iran. Earlier during the same conversation with journalists, Trump specified that it was specifically about Russia wanting to participate in the removal of enriched uranium stocks from Iran. "But I told him: 'Before you help me, I want you to finish your own war,'" he conveyed his response to Putin. "I think he has been ready to make a deal for some time now. I think some people have made it difficult for him to make a deal," Trump added, without going into details.