Former Russian president praises Trump over Zelensky remark

Dmitry Medevedev says he does not expect a change in policy on Ukraine, despite the former US president’s views

Donald Trump’s acknowledgment of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s responsibility for the conflict with Russia will not affect Washington’s support for Kiev, but it is still a significant development, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.

During an appearance on the PBD Podcast on Thursday, Trump maintained that Zelensky should have taken steps to prevent the outbreak of hostilities with Moscow.

“He should never have let that war start. That war is a loser,” he told host Patrick Bet-David. Trump called Zelensky a “great salesman” who has secured billions of dollars in US aid without achieving victory.

Medvedev reacted on Friday in a post on Telegram, pointing out that Trump is “the first former US President and presidential candidate” to admit that Zelensky “bears direct responsibility for the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine (or rather, for the civil war).”

“This admission will not change the US stance, even if ginger Donald regains the Oval Office. But the very fact of such a statement is extremely important for the future,” he wrote.

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The former Russian president, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, also commented on what he called “meaningless chatter” about Kiev working to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Zelensky claimed on Thursday that he told Trump during their meeting in New York in late September that in order to protect itself, Ukraine should either become a nuclear state or a NATO member. However, he insisted later that day that he “never spoke about preparing to create a nuclear weapon or anything like that.”

Medvedev said Kiev does not have the capability to produce an actual nuclear weapon and the “one sad conclusion” that could be drawn from Zelensky’s statements is that “the Nazi regime is trying to create a ‘dirty bomb.’”

A dirty bomb is a device that combines a conventional explosive with radioactive materials. Despite lacking the destructive power of a nuclear warhead, its detonation could result in the radioactive contamination of a large area.

Ukraine has “all the resources” to produce a ‘dirty bomb,’ including raw materials, technology and experts, the former president wrote. “Any Soviet-era laboratory will do for making a low-power charge. The clock is ticking,” he warned.

READ MORE: Ukraine must have nukes or NATO – Zelensky

In August, Russian military journalist Marat Khairullin claimed that Kiev had been planning an attack with the use of “a dirty atomic bomb” against Russia’s Zaporozhye or Kursk nuclear power plants, with the aim of then blaming the incident on Moscow.