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Fact-check: Did Ukraine start its war with Russia, as Trump claims?

"I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it's going very well," Trump said, answering reporters' questions on February 18 at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. "But today I heard [from Ukraine], 'Oh well, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years - you should have never started it, you could have made a deal."

This clashes with the evidence that Russia sent a large invasion force into Ukraine in February 2022.

PolitiFact | Fact-checking President Donald Trump’s attacks on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Claim: Zelenskyy started the war in Ukraine with Russia.
Claim: Zelenskyy is a dictator.
Claim: Zelenskyy has a 4% approval rating.
Claim: The U.S. spent $350 billion to help Ukraine.
Claim: Zelenskyy said he doesn't know where half of the money the U.S. has given Ukraine went.
Claim: Zelenskyy was "sleeping and unavailable" to meet Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett during a Feb. 12 Kyiv visit.

How much U.S. aid went to Ukraine? Detangling Trump, Zelensky’s claims. – The Washington Post

In his remarks, Zelensky went on to say that he knew a large part of U.S. aid came not in direct funds but in the forms of weapons, training, humanitarian programs and in other areas. He said: “I don’t know where all this money is.”

Trump appeared to take the comment as an admission that the money was lost. But while Zelensky said he did not know exactly how it was spent, his understanding appeared to comport with U.S. accounting that shows a large share went to activities carried out to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including within the United States.

Chart: Trump’s Claim That Zelensky Has 4% Support Is Far Off | Statista

Data released by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) shows that while Zelensky's support base has decreased since early 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, it is still far higher than Trump's claim of four percent. In a poll conducted between February 4-9, 57 percent of adults said they trusted Zelensky, while 37 percent of respondents said that they do not and six percent said it was hard to say.