Russian President Vladimir Putin shocked reporters Friday night in Alaska when he openly backed Donald Trump’s claim that the war in Ukraine never would have erupted if Trump had been in office instead of Joe Biden.
“I can confirm that,” Putin said flatly at the end of a tense press conference with Trump at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. His admission echoed Trump’s repeated campaign-trail insistence that Biden’s failures in 2020 paved the way for Russia’s invasion.
Putin went further, recalling his warnings to Washington in 2022, before the invasion began. “I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be brought to a point of no return,” he said, calling it “a big mistake.” Then, he added the bombshell line: “Today, when President Trump is saying that if he was the president back then there would be no war – I am quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that.”
The remark immediately raised eyebrows across the globe. Trump’s critics have long painted his relationship with Putin as problematic, but now the Russian leader has publicly tied his trust to Trump’s leadership — while throwing Biden and even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy under the bus.
Putin lamented that U.S.-Russia relations had “fallen to the lowest point since the Cold War” before Trump’s return to office and praised Trump for his willingness to cut through political theater. “His strive to get to the crux of the matter… is precious,” Putin said, signaling hopes for a “new stage” in diplomacy.
Trump, for his part, struck a tougher tone. He has already threatened “severe” economic consequences if Putin proves unwilling to strike a real peace deal. “Biden could’ve stopped it, Zelenskyy could’ve stopped it, and Putin should’ve never started it,” Trump had said earlier this year, underscoring his determination to bring the conflict to an end.
But the optics of Trump meeting Putin in Alaska were not lost on critics. Commentators compared it to Trump’s contentious sit-down with Zelenskyy, where the Ukrainian leader openly clashed with Trump and U.S. officials on how to handle the war. This time, it was Putin who seemed eager to project agreement, painting Trump as the only figure capable of halting the bloodshed.
Whether this signals real progress toward peace — or just another twist in the dangerous dance between Washington and Moscow — remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: Putin’s words handed Trump one of the most powerful endorsements of his foreign policy instincts yet, and they may reshape the course of the war itself.