Trump posted the text without any remarks, pasting only the title of a comment published on Tuesday by the editorial board of a right-wing tabloid: “Putin's nonsense about an 'attack' shows that it is Russia that stands in the way of peace.”
Donald Trump's post on Truth SocialTruthSocial
The article Trump posted quoted the president's words after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida that the end of the war was “closer than ever before,” but — as the New York Post commented — “instead, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin chose lies, hatred and death.” The editorial board of a newspaper belonging to Rupert Murdoch's empire calls out Russia's hypocrisy and says the alleged attack probably did not happen and was just an excuse for Putin to reject progress in peace talks.
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“Just like in Alaska, Putin responded to the peace offer by spitting in America's face,” the daily commented, encouraging Trump to offer a stick instead of a carrot, increase sanctions and arms supplies to Ukraine.
The published article is the first sign that the US president doubts Russian claims about the attack on Valdai. In his first public statement on the subject, he suggested that he believed Putin and that he was “very angry” with Ukraine, and to the suggestion that Putin might have been lying, he replied: “it's possible, but President Putin told me that was the case.”
On Tuesday, doubts about the Russian claims were signaled by the US ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, who said in an interview with Fox News that “it is not clear whether this actually happened.”
“I think it would be quite indelicate to do something so close to peace, and Ukraine really wants to make peace, that could be considered reckless or unhelpful,” he said. The ambassador added that the case is being investigated by the US intelligence services and its allies and is waiting for the conclusions of these findings.
