Trump: A wrong military decision made it impossible for Russia to take Kyiv on the first day

Donald Trump said that Russia could have ended the war in Ukraine on the very first day of the invasion, but according to him, the advance toward Kyiv was hindered by a wrong military decision.

Referring to the start of the conflict, the American president said that Russian forces had a large number of tanks at their disposal that were moving toward the Ukrainian capital along a strong highway suitable for heavy vehicles.

“If they had kept going on that road, they would have been in Kyiv within a few hours,” he said, claiming that Ukraine at that stage would not have been able to stop them.

According to Trump, a Russian commander decided that instead of using the main road, the troops would move through agricultural areas and muddy terrain. He said that the heavy rains that had fallen a few days earlier caused the Russian tanks to become stuck in difficult ground.

Trump also recalled that during his term as president, the United States supplied Ukrainian forces with Javelin anti-tank missiles, which, according to him, were used to strike Russian tank columns.

“They say I’m good with Russia. I’m not. I’ve been very tough on Russia,” the 80-year-old said, underlining that military aid to Ukraine helped slow the Russian advance.

He said that satellite images had shown large columns of tanks stranded for days and that attacks with anti-tank weapons caused heavy losses to the Russian army.

Trump described this situation as a “terrible mistake” on Russia’s part and added that the destruction of Russian tanks gave Ukrainians more confidence to continue their resistance.

These statements by Trump come amid ongoing discussions about the war in Ukraine and the way the first weeks of the conflict unfolded.