Trump Derides Zelensky’s Request To Buy $15B Worth Of Patriot Air Defense Systems

The Warzone via Yahoo ^ | April 15th, 2025 | Howard Altman

[Mariner]

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday chided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to purchase Patriot air defense systems. Zelensky made that statement during an interview that aired Sunday on CBS News‘ 60 Minutes program.

“He’s always looking to purchase missiles,” Trump said when asked about Zelensky’s offer. “Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right? You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size, and then hope that people give you some missiles.”

[Mariner]

Things not looking good for Ukraine right now...

[Mariner]

How long before the Ukrainian partisans start calling POTUS a “Putinista”?

[dynoman]

Many Americans have been doing that for a long time.

[Magnum44]

Trump wanders back and forth on this. I can understand his impatience with both sides, but...

“Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right?..."

Russia started this war.

[Wuli]

Trump demonstrates how contemptible and wrong he is - Putin and no one else started the war, which is Purin’s self-chosen war against Ukraine, and Ukraine’s defense is not a war to take land from Russia.

[Brian Griffin]

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-mineral-deposits-map/33331357.html

[JesusIsLord]

You don’t start a war ...

I'm by no means a Z man and I believe Ukraine to be one of the most corrupt countries/governments in the world. Nevertheless, Trump is wrong to depict Ukraine as starting the war. The last time I checked, Russia invaded Ukraine.

[Williams]

Trump statement is wrong but he is trying to do two things one of them is get Putin and Ukraine to end the war.
The other is to appeal to his base which hates Ukraine and maybe he doesn’t like Ukraine too much himself at this point.
I will support whatever he does he’s got a problem because he doesn’t want Russia to succeed and take over Ukraine but he doesn’t want to increase military aid either.

[McGruff]

I've never heard of Zelensky buying anything before.

[one guy in new jersey]

You’re taking Trump literally, and failing to take him seriously.

[Williams]

I think that in addition to having some animus towards Ukraine, Trump’s goal is to end the war quickly without catering to either side. He also wants to restore relations with Russia.
These are both noble goals. I’m very much afraid they may not be possible because Russia is not acting in good faith.
Trump also wants to separate Russia from china. So these are excellent goals but I’m afraid they are not going to work unless there is some good faith by Putin.

[desertsolitaire]

Is Zelensky’s gambit that he lets conditions on the ground deteriorate so badly that he feels world opinion will somehow force the West into swooping in and putting in ground troops and a Western no-fly zone over all of Ukraine AND the buffer areas within Russia adjacent that Russia fires their glide bombs from? Like how Nixon finally invaded Cambodia and Laos to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail routes?

[Deo volente]

True that Putin invaded Ukraine but there was little to no will on both sides to discuss a cease fire early on. So many thousands of people died with no end in sight.
The 99-year old Henry Kissinger offered an outline of a reasonable settlement back in 2022 and was politely told to get lost.

The globalists won’t be satisfied until there is either perpetual fighting, or Russia submits to the New World Order.

[central_va]

The other is to appeal to his base which hates Ukraine and maybe he doesn't like Ukraine too much himself at this point.

What a bunch of malarkey.

[nathanbedford]

You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size, and then hope that people give you some missiles.”

In point of fact, Mr. President, not people but you gave some missiles, namely Sidewinder's, to president Zelinski's Ukraine and you did it, yes, before the war started.

As a matter of fact, you have many times bragged that your missiles were the principal reason Putin's drive on Kiev was checked.

Somehow it is wrong for a man when his country is in mortal peril to ask for missiles but okay for Trump to have given weapons to Ukraine and, indeed, he continues to give them even to this day.

Is it also okay for the president of the United States to lie about who started the war, or did he simply skip the briefing that day?

[SaxxonWoods]

“Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right?...”

“Russia started this war.”

Putin thinks he is saving Russia from people trying to destroy it and it doesn’t matter whether he’s right or wrong. Ukraine can’t defeat Russia.

[nathanbedford]

The other is to appeal to his base which hates Ukraine

I submit that the reason the base hates Ukraine is because Trump has conditioned them to hate Ukraine.

[Kleon]

Russia started this war.

Idiot Zelinsky started it.

[Wuli]

“The globalists” Has nothing to do with Putin’s war. The Russian ancient zeal for Empire lived on through the “Soviet” phase and continues today in Putin.

[EliRoom8]

What seems to make sense is that Trump means that prior to the tanks, there was the CIA-sponsored Maiden Revolution by which a street uprising forced Yanokovych out of power. His crime was that he had opposed Ukraine’s entrance into NATO.