Russia and Putin · Second term · № 104
Said he was told Russia "made a mistake" in the Palm Sunday strike on Sumy
“Oh, I think it was terrible, and I was told they made a mistake. But I think it's a horrible thing.”
- Said
- , Aboard Air Force One
- Subject
- Sumy missile strike
- Type
- Ukraine
- Topic
- Ukraine & Russia
- Era
- Second term
What happened
A Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025, killed 34 people, Deutsche Welle reported. Asked that evening whether he meant the strike was unintentional, Trump said, "They made a mistake," told reporters to ask Russia, and added, "This is Biden's war." Friedrich Merz, then Germany's incoming chancellor, called the attack "a deliberate and calculated war crime." In the Oval Office the next day Trump said, "The mistake was letting the war happen," and said of Zelensky, "You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles." In the same remarks he said "Putin should have never started it" and "Everybody's to blame."