September 1939 - Russia started World War II as an ally of NAZI Germany. The NAZI’s attacking from the west, northwest and southwest; the Russians attacking from the east. Target: Poland.
Eventually, Hitler chose to attack Russia; the date: June 1941.
US troops formally began fighting Germans in Africa, in 1942, with limited engagements, then progressing to major engagements that were infrequent but more often in 1943.
The US and UK invaded Sicily in 1943. Italian mainland in 1943.
In Eastern Europe, Russian and German forces were engaged steadily and on a large scale from June 1941.
The US was not so engaged until June 1944, when the Western Allies invaded France (and of course, also engaged against Germans in Italy).
Russia did not make war against Japan until August 8, 1945.
In the German vs. Russian contest, Stalin threw wave after wave of Russians against German guns for almost 4 years worth of week to week, month to month fighting.
So, of course, if you follow the durations - plural - the Russians and Germans were in much more prolonged contact . . . and the Russians died in greater numbers, and the Germans died in greater numbers, on the Eastern Front.
- - -
Russia, or the Soviet Union, won more than the Western Allies did because they got what they wanted in Europe. Germany was defeated and there was a Russian sphere of influence all the way to the Elbe River to act as a buffer against a future attack from the west.
As Russia also had invaded Poland England and France were technically obligated to be at war with them… Which would have produced an interesting alternate history…
When the Battle of Stalingrad ended Feb 2, 1943, with the defeat of the Wehrmacht, historians note that the war was essentially over and Hitler knew it.
Unable to rid the world of Bolsheviks, Hitler turned to Plan B, the effort to rid Europe of Jews.
True, Hitler was a psychopathic mass murderer, probably afflicted with tertiary-stage syphilis (significant brain damage, fits of rage etc.), but this is history.
My only quibble with Trump saying the Russians defeated Hitler is that Stalin may not have succeeded without massive shipments of aid from the U.S.
“Lend-lease” was sold to Americans as aid for the U.K., but most of it went to the USSR along with nuclear materials. This was orchestrated by one of Stalin’s agents in the WH, FDR’s “Co-President” Harry Hopkins.
As a footnote, according to Soviet defector Ken Alibek, the USSR used biological weapons to halt the German advance. This was Tulerimia, only 10% fatal but rendering a far higher number extremely ill, requiring a 6-week halt in the Blitzkrieg so they could be cared for...allowing the Russian winter to set in.